THE 

EARLY HISTORY 



St. Louis and Missouri 



ELIHU H. SHEPAUD, 



FORMERLY 



PROFESSOR OF LANGUAGES IN ST. LOUIS COLLEGE. 



TO WHICH IS APPENDED 



THE AUTHOR'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 




%;M^^.^u > 



SAINT LOUIS: 
SOUTHWESTERN BOOK AND PUBLISHING COMPANY, 

510 AND 512 WASIITNGTON AVENUE. 
1870. 






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PREFACE. 



The fortunate withdrawal of the manuscript of the History 
OF St. Louis and Missouri from the Missouri Republican office 
but a few hours before its sudden and total destruction by- 
fire, and the more fortunate preservation of the author's 
Autobiography through such a general conflagration, have left 
it in his power still to expose their contents to the literary 
world and place them beyond future danger of destruction 
Moreover, the advanced age of the author admonishes him to 
secure his present labors by publishing what he has already 
finished, and to wait for the rebuilding of the Missouri Repiib- 
lican office for completing the later history of the city and 
the State, 

The author hopes this course will be approved by his friends 
and the public, and, therefore, he adopts it 

Very respectfully, 

ELIHU H. SHEPARD. 



•»-r>i>'ev.Vr jr/ :2Z. -w /» v«r ^ •.< ..: ^^-.l-^.u.j>..m— — m- 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I 



The first Explorations of Missouri by White Men, and the Settlement 
of Missouri and St. Louis by Pierre Laclede Liguest — The first 
Mutation in the Government — Arrival of Captain Louis St. Ange 
de Bellerive and the Troops of the Garrison of Fort Chartres ... 9 

CHAPTER II. 

The first Marriage and first Dedication of a Church in St. Louis — 
The Death and Burial of the Great Ottawa Indian Chieftain 
Pontiac and his Dear Friend St. Ange de Bellerive; Both Buried 
in St. Louis 15 

CHAPTER III. 

The Happy Days of St. Louis and Missouri — The Transfer of the 
Country from Spain to France, and from France to the United 
States 



32 



CHAPTER IV. 

Raid on Loutre Island by the Indians, and Death of several Prominent 
Citizens — The Battle of Tippecanoe, and the First Steamboat on the 
Western Rivers, in 181 1 — The Great Earthquake and Destruction 
of New Madrid 

CHAPTER V. 



45 



Remarkable Performance of Colonel Russell Famum, a Fur Trader of 

St. Louis, Missouri 51 

CHAPTER VI. 

Reminiscences of Manuel Liza, a Spaniard, and his devotion to the 
United States in the War of 181 2 — The first Bank in St. Louis — 
Duel between Colonel Thomas H. Benton and Charles Lucas, Esq., 



yi CONTENTS. 

and the result — The first Brick House in St. Louis — Missouri 
becomes a State of the Federal Union — The first Iron Foundry in 
St. Louis 55 

CHAPTER VII. 

The Incorporation of the town of St. Louis by the Legislature, with a 

V' Charter for a City — The Expedition of Gen. William H. Ashley 

to the Rocky Mountains, and his Defeat by Auricaree Indians ort 

the Missouri — Duel between Thos. C. Rector and Joshua Barton, 

in which the latter was killed 65 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The first Female Charitable Society Formed in St. Louis — Return of 
General Ashley, Successful, from the Rocky Mountains — Election 
of Hon. Frederick Bates, Governor, and his Early Death 70 

CHAPTER IX. 

The Invitation tb the Marquis de Lafayette to Visit St. Louis, and his 

Acceptance — His Arrival, Reception and Departure 76 

CHAPTER X. 

The Assassination of Mr. Horatio Cozzens — The Seat of Government 
Removed from St. Charles to Jefferson City — Hon. Thomas H. 
Benton Re-elected to the Senate of the United States 82 

CHAPTER XI. 

The St. Lguis Arsenal Commenced, and a New Market House on 
Place d'Armes — Missouri Hibernian Relief Society Organized, 
and a Colonization Society 87 

CHAPTER XII. 

The Court House Finished, and an Episcopal Church — The Branch of 
the Old United States Bank Opened in St. Louis — Inauguration 
of Water Works System 92 

CHAPTER XIII. 

Duel between Hon. Spencer Pettis and Major Thomas Biddle, and the 
Attending Circumstances 98 



CONTENTS. Vn 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Erection of the Second Market in St. Louis, on Broadway — The ' 
Sympathy of Missourians with the People of lUinois Distressed by 
the Black Hawk War — ^Their Response — Excitement in St. Louis- 
by the Veto of the Bank Bill, July loth, 1832, by the President — 
The first Appearance of Cholera , , 103 

CHAPTER XV. 

Two Representatives in Congress Elected — The State Enlarged by Act 

of Congress- — How it was Done — Arrival of the Sisters of Charity U^ 
and Founding of their Hospital — The Legislature Authorizes the 
Sale of the St. Louis Commons by the City Council, and this 
enables the Public Schools to commence operations 109 

CHAPTER XVI. 

Rise and Progress of Parochial and other Schools and Colleges 115 

CHAPTER XVII. 

Destruction of the Old Cathedral Building by Fire — Tlie first Railroad 
Convention in St. Louis — ^The Murder of Deputy Sheriff" Ham- 
mond and Burning of the Murderer by the Citizens — The Texan 
War, in which some Missourians Participated 117 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

The Appointment of Robert W. Wells to the Bench of the United 
States District Court of Missouri — The Burning of the first Steam 
Flouring Mill in tlie City — Incorporation of the Bank of the State 
of Missouri — The Overthrow of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy's Printing 
Press by a few Individuals under Cover of Darkness of Night — 
Organization of General Richard Gentry's Command, their Distant 
Campaign in Florida, and his Honorable Death in the Arms of 
Victory 128 

CHAPTER XIX., 

Visit of Hon. Daniel Webster to St. Louis — Death of Hon. David 

Barton, one of the first United States Senators from Missouri — . 13^ 



VIII CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XX. 

The first Public School Houses Erected in St. Louis — Death of Rev. 
EHjah P. Lovejoy, late of St. Louis, at Alton, Illinois — Burning of 
the State House and Documents at Jefferson City 139 

CHAPTER XXI. 

The Ice and Frost of 1838 — Opening of the St. Louis Public Schools — 
Death of Gen. William Clarke, First Governor of the Territory 
after the Adoption of the Name of Missouri — The Mormons Arrive 
in Missouri and are Expelled for Misconduct — The Establishment 
of the St. Louis Criminal Court 145 

CHAPTER XXII. 

Establishment of the Ten Hour System of Labor — Great Extension of 
the City Limits and Division into Five Wards — The Abolition of V 
Property Qualifications for Voters — The Murder of Two Young 
Men by Four Negroes, and their subsequent Arrest, Conviction 
and Execution 151 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The Establishment of the Court of Common Pleas — The Appearance 

of the Native American Party — Death of Hon. John B. C. Lucas. 157 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

St. Louis Becomes a Manufacturing City — Remarkable Trial of a 
Circuit Court Judge before a Criminal Court, and his Acquittal — 
Change in the Manner of Voting in St. Louis County — The 
Steamer Edna Collapses a Flue and Destroys the Lives of Fifty- 
five Persons — The Death of Several Prominent Citizens 160 

CHAPTER XXV. 

Remarkable Visit of Audubon, the Ornithologist, to the Mouth of the 
Yellowstone river, and his safe Return — The Robbery and Murder 
of Don Chavis on the Santa Fe Road — Visit of Colonel Richard 
M. Johnson to St. Louis — Death of Major Joshua Pilcher at 
St. Louis 167 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AW MISSOURI. 



CHAPTER I. 



The First Exploration of Missouri hy White Men, and the 
Settlement of St. Louis hy Pierre Laclede Liguest — The 
First Mutation in the Government — Arrival of Capt. Louis 
St. Ange de Bellerive and Troops of the Garrison of Fort 
Chartres. 

Some of the most pleasing, useful and lasting monuments in 
history have had their origin in very small and trifling inci- 
dents, and are viewed with veneration and delight on account 
of their artlessness and apparent conformity to everything 
that surrounds them. 

What can be more natural and praiseworthy in the surviv- 
ing patriarchs and builders of a great city than to leave a 
history of its date, origin and growth? This subject had long 
attracted the attention of the old residents of St, Louis, as 
they saw their older associates who had assisted in building it 
up in its infancy gradually leaving them, until the last indi- 
vidual was dead, who accompanied Col. Auguste Chouteau to 
its site and witnessed the first labors for its foundation. A 
century had nearly elapsed, and more than two hundred thou- 
sand people then resided within two miles of the site of the 
present court house. 

The builders of such a city could never let its history perish. 
More than two hundred and fifty of those who had spent thirty 
years in its building participated in forming the Missouri His- 
torical Society of St. Louis, at the court house, on the 11th day 



lO HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

of August, 1866, being the centenary anniversary of the first 
grant of land in Missouri. 

The same object which induced them to form it has since 
promjDted them to support it, and collect such materials as will 
enable them by degrees to present a history of the State and 
of the city which may challenge the scrutinizing view and the 
austere judgment of the historian on its merit. 

"We will begin when Missouri was the hereditary domain of 
the red man, living in scattered bands over this magnificent 
State, in huts without chimneys, walls, or one stone upon' 
another for protection against enemies or elements. 

They obtained their precarious subsistence chiefly by pursu- 
ing the inhabitants of the earth and water ; had dogs, but no 
other domestic animals ; spoke different languages, and occa- 
sionally warred fiercely with each other. Such was its condi- 
tion when, on the 7th day of July, 1673, a small band of Euro- 
peans and Canadians, from Quebec, led by Father Marquette, 
a monk, and Joliet, a merchant, reached the Mississippi river. 

It is evident the red men of Missouri had no hostility or pre- 
judices against strangers, as they allowed them to descend the 
river to the junction of the Arkansas and to return in peace 
and publish to the world a description of the most wonderful 
and mighty river of the world, whether its waters, its length, 
its magnificence, its branches, or its banks are considered. 

Five years later LaSalle, in 1668, navigated the Mississippi 
to the mouth without meeting with any opposition from the 
natives dwelling in Missouri, and from that time to the present 
the aborigines of Missouri have manifested an unusual confi- 
dence in strangers from all parts of the world. Hence their 
country was never made a battle field on w^hich to settle those 
dreadful controversies which have distracted other sections of 
our country and filled them with desolation and mourning, 
while this enjoyed the enviable position of being an asjdum. 

This state of peace and quietude over the territory now in- 
cluded in the State of Missouri arose from its remoteness from 
points where the cupidity of wealth had attracted its votaries 
and kept their attention employed on objects that seemed to 
promise a more immediate reward. 

This continued seventy-three years after LaSalle had ex- 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. II 

plored the Mississippi to the Gulf, until in 1755, when Ste. 
Genevieve was founded by the French, attracted there by the 
lead mines in its vicinity, which was the first settlement made 
by Europeans in the State. There does not appear to have 
been any purchase made by the original inhabitants at the 
time, nor does any objection appear to have been made by 
them to their settlement there or to any of the French settle- 
ments made in Missouri, although the Illinois Indians were the 
acknowledged owners amcmg red men. But in those days the 
Indian title was not noticed or recognized, as no law had been 
made to protect them, and they were invaded and their lands 
appropriated with impunity by those who coveted them. 

The peace of Paris, in 1763, made the Mississippi the line 
between the possessions of France and England. This, how- 
ever, did not change the Indian title to the country or their 
intercourse with the French, for the Indians of Missouri con- 
tinued to trade at the villages of Cahokia and Kaskaskia, 
until Pierre Laclede Liguest removed his goods from Fort de 
Chartres, where he had wintered, to the present site of St. 
Louis. On the 15th day of February, 1764, his Lieutenant, 
Auguste Chouteau, the long well-known and much respected 
Col. Auguste Chouteau, commenced operations on the block 
next the river, on the south side of Market street, where the 
Merchants' Exchange now stands, and which had been the site 
of the only market house which the city contained for about 
sixty years from its foundation, and gave name to the street 
on which it was located. Temporary buildings, for the shelter 
of his workmen and tools, were soon constructed from the tim- 
ber on the ground, for that part of the city was covered with a 
growth of the most suitable timbers for that purpose and for 
the camp fires of the new settlers, so necessary at that incle- 
ment season of the year. Early in March Pierre Laclede 
Liguest arrived, laid out the plan of the future town, and named 
it St. Louis, in honor of Louis XY, king of France. In this 
plan of his city, although he predicted its future greatness, he 
seems to have overlooked the advantages of broad streets and 
large blocks, and thereby betrayed his want of knowledge of 
the liberal scale which has been adopted by all the great 
builders of beautiful cities in laying out their streets and 
public grounds. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



He, however, manifested a proper respect for religion and 
sacred things, which is commended at this late day, but which 
it would then have pained him to have been persuaded that, 
within one century, it would be so perverted from his design 
as to quite change its sacred character and nearly obliterate 
his labor. Having drawn his plan he dedicated the third block 
from the river, one hundred yards square, adjoining the south 
line of Market street, to the use of a Catholic church and a 
cemetery, and it was so used for more than half a century, 
when nearly every one who had ever seen Pierre Laclede 
Liguest had been buried in the cemetery. 

All those patriarchal remains are now removed and buried 
under the Cathedral, which, with the Bishop's house, occupies 
a portion of the south part of the block on Walnut street ; the 
residue is occupied by the most attractive business houses in 
the heart of the city. 

Mr. Liguest was a merchant of no ordinary mind. Others 
have acquired vastly larger estates than he, but no one has 
excelled him in pushing forward commercial enterprises in 
person and planting the seed of a city in more fertile soil and 
cultivating it with greater success. His scrutinizing eye and 
sound judgment directed him to the point on the block on Main 
street directly in front of where the Merchants' Exchange of 
St. Louis now stands, as being the best place to sell goods on 
the west side of the Mississippi, in 1764. More than a century 
has since elapsed and it is the best place yet. On this celebrated 
block, on which Barnum's Hotel now stands, and on which other 
stupendous structures unite to cover the whole block, Mr. 
Liguest erected his dwelling house and store. 

When Mr. Liguest had his plans matured to commence the 
erection of his house, he encountered a peaceful, but most 
untoward, frightful, annoying and expensive occurrence, that 
taxed all his patience, prudence, courage, wisdom and perse- 
verance to overcome, but which developed his character and 
left it to the admiration of posterity. The acknowledged 
owners, among red men, of all the west bank of the Mississippi, 
from the Missouri to the mouth of the Oliio, were the Illinois 
Indians. A village of Missouri Indians, residing beyond this 
tract, having heard of the advent of the merchant, broke up 
their winter quarters and came on a begging excursion, to the 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 13 

numlber of one liundred and fifty warriors, with all tlieir fami- 
lies, outnumbering the Europeans five to one, and in the most 
confiding, friendly and familiar manner located their huts as 
near as possible to their new acquaintances, manifesting the 
utmost pleasure and contentment in their new homes, and 
exhibiting tlieir willingness to participate in all the labors and 
enjoyments the place afforded. 

It is a remarkable incident, worthy of memory, that the first 
cellar ever excavated in St. Louis was done by the squaws of 
this band, and the earth removed to a low place at considerable 
distance, and payment made for it in beads and other orna- 
ments. 

The inconvenience of their presence was soon felt, and their 
departure requested and refused. They said " they were like 
the ducks and buzzards, who sought open water to rest and 
refresh themselves on, and they desired no better place than 
they now enjoyed." 

The prudent Liguest, however, proceeded to no violence 
against them, but, having supplied them with provisions, he 
threatened them with the vengeance of the French troops 
stationed at Fort Chartres, which soon frightened them to a 
departure in peace. Nor did they ever return or manifest any 
resentment against him or his people on that account. Being 
relieved from their presence and confirmed in their friendship, 
he prosecuted the building of his house and store, enlarged 
the circuit of the village, and gave encouragement to emigrants, 
without fear or opposition. 

Thus the new colony soon gave evidence of thrift and stability, 
and stimulated the inhabitants of Illinois, who felt aversion to 
British rule, to transfer their establishments to the new settle- 
ment, which soon changed the current of trade and concen- 
trated it rapidly at St. Louis. 

It was in April of this year that M. d'Abbadie, the Com- 
mandant General of Louisiana, received orders from his sove- 
reign to proclaim to the people the surrender of all the French 
possessions west of the Mississippi to Spain. 

The people of New Orleans were highly exasperated by the 
promulgation, and declared they would not be separated from 
their mother country. 

A few months later the intelligence reached St. Louis and 



14 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

produced ttie same sensation, and was intensified by tlie report 
soon after tliat M. d'Abbadie, overwhelmed by the orders he had 
received, had died of grief. Tliis state of public feeling so far 
manifested itself hostile to Spanish authority that, although 
the transfer was made in 1762, it was not carried full}" into 
execution until 1769. 

A large warehouse was built and occupied on the eastern 
part of the block which was known as La Place d'Armes at 
that time, but is now all used for the most extensive mercantile 
operations. 

In the early part of the following summer, 1765, the com- 
mandant of Fort Chartres, Louis St. Ange de Bellerive, delivered 
the possession of the fort to Capt. Sterling, an English officer 
appointed by his country for that purpose, and removed the 
garrison of above forty soldiers to the new colony. This added 
much to its military strength and character, but very little to 
its moral and industrial habits. The disorder that soon followed 
demonstrated tlie necessity of having a governing head to the 
community, and probably no people were ever blessed with a 
more suitable or worthy person for a governing chief than St. 
Ange de Bellerive was for theirs ; and their sound judgment 
and necessity at once assigned him to the place. 

He was a favorite with his countrymen, and his name acted 
as a talisman in securing the respect and affection of the 
Indians, as they knew him to be an inveterate foe to the English, 
which was a crowning virtue in tlieir eyes. He was the friend 
of Pontiac, tlie great chief of the Ottawas and demigod of 
Western savages. 

He alone had been able to persuade Pontiac to bury the 
hatchet when all his allies had forsaken him. "By their 
unanimous desire he was vested with the authority of Com- 
mandant General, with full j)Ower to grant lands and to do all 
other acts consistent with that office as though he held it by 
royal authority." 

He was the intimate friend of Mr. Liguest, the founder of 
the town, and like him was never married. 

There can be no doubt that Louis St. Ange de Bellerive 
accepted the authority conferred on him by the people of St. 
Louis, and acted on it with the approbation of Aubri, the Com- 
mandant General of New Orleans, as he was too honorable an 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 1 5 

officer to administer an authority without the approbation of 
his superiors. When he had instituted a government, things 
assumed a more flattering appearance, and several merchants 
of considerable wealth became residents of the village and 
built more commodious habitations. Until their advent the 
house of Liguest, which had the walls of the first story built 
of stone, while all the other dwellings had their walls built of 
flattened logs set with one end about two feet in the ground, 
and the interstices tilled with small stones and mortar. 

In 1766 St. Ange de Bellerive, having organized his system 
of government and procured that now venerable and well 
known book called Livre Terrien^ commenced making grants 
of land, hoping for a retrocession of the country to France, 
when the grants would be legalized by a confirmation. 

Two grants were made to Pierre Laclede Liguest on the 11th 
day of August, 1766 — one for the block on which the Barnum 
Hotel now stands, the other the mill tract on which the old 
Chouteau stone mill now stands, both of which grants have 
always been recognized as perfectly legitimate and the most 
valuable of their size in the State. 



CHAPTER II. 



Tlie First Marriage and First Dedication of a CliurcJi in St. 
Louis — The Death and Burial of the Great Ottaioa Indian 
Chieftain Pontiac and his Dear Frien^d St. Ange de Belle- 
rive; Both Buried in St. Louis. 

The first marriage in the new colony was celebrated on the 
20th of April, 1766, more than two years after its settlement, 
Toussaint Hanen and Marie Baugenon being the parties to the 
contract. The first mortgage was recorded as made on the 
29th day of September, 1766, by Pierre Berger to Francis 
Latour, two merchants engaged in the peltry trade ; it does not 
specify any particular article, but pledges all the goods of the 
mortgagor as security to the mortgagee for the payment of a 
specified number of bundles of deer skins at a specified time, 
but without any stipulated value being mentioned in the 



l6 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

instrument. It was, however, canceled some years after, by 
the attorney of the mortgagee acknowledging payment on a 
simple receipt, attested by a notary and recorded among the 
archives. 

From this transaction we infer there was encouragement 
given to attorneys at that early day, as well as others, to peo- 
ple the new city, and that payments were as tardy and secur- 
ities as useful as at the present time. The only exports were 
furs and peltries, which were currently received as bank notes 
now are, and their qualities as carefully examined and their 
values estimated in all transactions. 

One year after the grants made to P. Laclede Liguest, when 
the village had assumed shape and was making a rapid 
growth under its popular and able magistrate, on the 11th day 
of August, 1767, the town was thrown into a femient by the 
arrival of news from New Orleans of the intention of the Span- 
ish Grovernment to take possession of the country which had 
been ceded to it under the secret treaty of 1762. This threw a 
shade over the prospect of the future, and a year of bitter rage 
disturbed the quiet people of St. Louis, without a foe to fight 
or means to change their position, when, on the lltli day of 
August, 1768, a body of Spanish troops, under one Rios, acting 
under the orders of Don Antonio d'Ulloa, the Governor of 
Louisiana, arrived and intensified their alarm, but made no 
demonstrations against the established regulations of St. Ange 
de Bellerive. Having quietly spent the winter in St. Louis, Rios 
retired with his small force early in the summer of 1769, to the 
great relief and joy of the people. 

The first season of joy and festivity on their departure had 
not closed when an event occurred which created a sensation 
of curiosity to some and pleasure to others, not easily 
described or ever forgotten by Missouri historians. 

It was the arrival of Pontiac, the great Ottawa chieftain, to 
visit his dear friend and old acquaintance, St. Ange de Belle- 
rive. The fame of Pontiac was as familiar at that time as 
that of Grant or Sherman at this, from the Mississippi to t\xQ 
Atlantic. 

He had formed the confederation of many different tribes of 
Indians, dwelling hundreds of miles asunder, occupying the 
district from the Mississippi to the Alleghany, and between the 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



17 



Ohio and the lakes, to resist the power and encroachment of 
the English, whom he, as well as most all of the Indians, feared 
and distrusted more than any other people, and believed, with 
the assistance of the French, they could drive and con- 
fine beyond the Alleghany and Cumberland Mountains. He 
had won the friendship, confidence and esteem of the chival- 
rous Montcalm at Quebec ; had distinguished himself in the 
ambuscade and defeat of General Braddock, near Pittsburg ; 
had planned the massacre at Michilimacknac. He had matured 
the plan and appointed the time for attacking the forts and 
settlements of the English pioneers, by which more than two 
thousand of them lost their lives. 

These exploits had cast a romance about his name and 
excited the most intense desire to behold the great chieftain. 
St. Ange de Bellerive gave him a most cordial reception, cor- 
responding to his former high position, at his own quarters in 
the house of Madame Chouteau, and he was feted and 
caressed by many of the principal inhabitants of the village. 

The plans of this remarkable chief, although successful and 
flattering for a time and aided by one of the greatest nations 
in Europe, had all failed ; his allies had all forsaken him ; his 
best friends had persuaded him to bury the tomahawk, and 
his active mind brooded over his disappointments until he had 
suffered it to be stupefied by the lethean bowl when out of the 
influence of his watchful friends. In this state of mind he soon 
became wearied and restless, and expressed a desire to visit 
Cahokia, where some French friends had invited him, as he 
was still the famous Pontiac, and all wished to see him. 

His friend, St. Ange.de Bellerive, was unable to dissuade him 
from his purpose. He had fallen. That sublime expression 
of countenance, which had formerly given evidence of intel- 
lect and chivalrous devotion to his country and people, had 
given place to a bloated visage that betrayed the want of all 
prudence or self-respect inits present possessor. Still he was 
the lion that attracted all eyes toward him as he went to cross 
the river to Cahokia in 1769, dressed in a complete uniform 
which he had received from the unfortunate Montcalm on his 
visit to Quebec. His friends who remained in St. Louis never 
saw him alive again. He left with a few followers and arrived 
at Cahokia, where he drank deeply, until his faculties were 



1 8 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

stupefied, when lie wandered in tlie underwood about the vil- 
lage where he was tomahawked by a Kaskaskia Indian, who 
had been hired by an English trader, named Williamson, to 
kill the great chieftain, for which he was rewarded by the pay- 
ment of a barrel of whisky. When St. Ange de Bellerive 
heard that Pontiac was murdered he caused his body to be 
brought to St. Louis, amid the general mourning of the inhab- 
itants, where it was buried with the honors of war, near the 
tower which stood at the junction of Fourth and Walnut 
streets, on the block next south of the Court House, where his 
remains rested until tradition alone could indicate the spot. 

The mighty chief now rested on land owned by those who 
drank the price of his blood, but who were destined never to 
visit it again, but to have a place in the history of Missouri in 
common with him and his avengers; for the great Ottawa chief 
was too well known and too much beloved by the red warriors 
of that day to be assassinated and his death go unavenged. 
The surrounding warriors becoming acquainted with the cir- 
cumstances of his death, and that the Illinois Indians had 
drank the price of his blood in a common debauch, their sav- 
age instinct was roused, and with a universal howl of ven- 
geance against all who had tasted of the whisky, and the 
war-whoop still thrilling on their lips, they quickly assembled 
and assailed the different tribes of Illinois Indians, and nearly 
annihilated their existence by an indiscriminate slaughter. 
I Thus the colonists of Missouri have never been pained by 
the presence or annoyed by the claims of the Illinois Indians, 
and the ashes of Pontiac lie in St. Louis, as well as those of 
his dear friend, St. Ange de Bellerive — repose without a slab 
or epitaph to mark the spot of their sepulture or to perpetuate 
their memories. Houses are built where both were buried, 
and but few know that their remains rest in St. Louis. During 
the same year, fraught with so -many exciting incidents con- 
nected with the visit, death, burial and avenging of Pontiac, 
news came from New Orleans that sent a thrill of terror into 
the hearts of the inhabitants, and made them tremble in the 
anticipation of the future. Don Alexander O'Reilly, who had 
been appointed Commandant General of Louisiana, arrived at 
New Orleans, with three thousand men to enforce his authority. 
Seven years had elapsed since France had, without war, ceded 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



19 



the territory to Spain, and several peaceful attempts had been 
made to obtain quiet possession, without success. In short, a 
spirit of insubordination had seized the people, and many were 
assembled to dispute his landing, and were only prevented 
from attempting resistance by the timely persuasion of the 
magistrates and principal citizens, when they saw that all 
attempts to resist such a force would be unavailing. 

He landed amid threats and execrations and saw the elements 
were rife for a spirit of revolt, only waiting a more fitting time 
to manifest itself more fully. He was not a man to be trilled 
with or thwarted in the execution of his duties. 

He caused twelve of the ringleaders to be arrested, five of 
whom were shot, one committed suicide, and six were imprisoned 
in Cuba. 

This enabled him to put the Spanish code of laws into opera- 
tion, which were soon found to be quite as well suited to the 
taste, and circumstances of the people as those of France. 

He then extended the Spanish authority to the Upper Lou- 
isiana, by disj)atching Lieut.-Gov. Piernas, who arrived in St. 
Louis in the earl};^ part of 1770, and quickly received possession 
of the country from M. St. Ange de Bellerive. It was with 
regret and tears the French people saw the flag of their 
country removed and a foreign banner supply its place. 

But with two such men present as Lieut.-Gov. Piernas and 
M. St. Ange de Bellerive it was not wonderful that such a peace- 
ful and quiet people as the early French colonists were should 
soon become reconciled, contented and happy in their new con- 
dition. In the same year there was a great festival on the 
occasion of the dedication of the new church, built, according 
to the custom of the French, with flattened logs set on end in 
the earth and the interstices filled with mortar, located at the 
southwest corner of Market and Second streets. The solemn 
ceremonies were performed on the 24th of June, 1770, being 
the anniversary of St. John the Baptist, when the inhabitants 
turned out en masse to worship in a Christian manner the only 
true God of the universe. The holy Father Gibault, surrounded 
by his little flock which he had gathered to teach and guide in 
the fold of the church, said mass, administered the Eucharist 
and chanted the Te Deum and De Profundis with a heart over- 
flowing with gratitude to the great Benefactor of man. 



20 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

In performing this duty lie must have enjoyed a taste of that 
ambrosial food which can only be partaken by the holy and 
the good. 

When the benediction had been pronounced and the people 
dismissed to their homes, there was an universal rejoicing and 
satisfaction that a church had been completed and the banner 
of the cross erected in peace ; and that their labors received 
the approbation of Heaven is manifest from the fact that, 
although a hundred years have since elapsed and every person 
then present is dead, the worship of God on that block has not 
been susjjended for a single day. 

The administration of Don Pedro Piernas, in 1770, com- 
menced under most favorable circumstances for an officer of 
his kind and liberal disposition, and was conducted with that 
wisdom and prudence which seldom fail to make both the 
governor and the governed happy. His predecessor was a 
most venerable and popular man among a most peaceful people. 

They had felt opposition to receiving foreign rulers, but ex- 
hibited it only in tears, which won their affections and secured 
his affection. 

Their former magistrate was still among them as a guardian 
and example, and was the friend and adviser of his successor. 
In all civilized societies the acquisition and security of wealth 
attracts early attention, and is considered the certain proof of 
wisdom. The new Governor gave early attention to this, and 
in the most public manner confirmed all the grants that had 
been made by his predecessor, St. Ange de Bellerive, and, as if 
to add satisfaction to security, appointed Martin Duvalde, a 
Frenchman, as surveyor to mark and define their boundaries. 
He also appointed the late commander of the fort, Capt. Louis 
St. Ange de Bellerive, a captain in the service of his Catholic 
Majesty, which still more reconciled them to the change and 
quieted all their fears for the future, and enabled them to enjoy 
the fruition of their most sanguine hopes. 

The subjects of England, on the east side of the Mississippi 
river, were soon informed of the liberal policy of the Spanish 
officers, and began to avail themselves of an exchange of their 
allegiance for a peaceful home in Missouri, while the opposite 
side of the river was distracted with frequent murders, raids, 
battles and desolation. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 21 

The wife of Gov. Piernas was a French lady, daughter of 
Mr. Portneiif, and her relationsliip and fascinating manners 
added much to her husband's popularity and enchantment to 
St. Louis society, which has not as yet entirely faded away. 
The manners of her husband were formed after the fashion of 
his own country, having more hauteur than, and less of the 
familiarity of, the French. This circumstance was near 
costing him his life, and is the only instance of offense being 
taken at his conduct in Missouri during the five years he 
administered the government. 

A chief of a tribe of the Osage Indians, being on a visit to 
the Governor of St. Louis, observed he declined the rude 
familiarity he had been indulged in by the French, and re- 
solved on assassinating him for the offense. Having collected 
some chosen followers and decked himself in the fantastic and 
wild attire of a savage warrior, he returned to St. Louis to 
put his resolution into execution on the first opportunity. It 
so happened that a Shawnee chief had then come to St. Louis, 
with a much larger number of followers, on a treaty for some 
lands in the rear of Ste. Genevieve, to which they had been 
invited by Piernas, that he might interpose a barrier between 
the wild Indians of the West and the settlers of Ste. Genevieve. 
The Osage, getting into a debauch on the first night of his arrival, 
boldly declared his intention — that he had come all the 
distance from his country expressly for that purpose, and only 
waited for an opportunity to execute his design. 

The Shawnee chief, animated by feudal enmity, and exas- 
perated by such nefarious declarations, and "willing also to 
demonstrate his friendship and attachment to Gov. Piernas, 
drew the Osage into a quarrel and stabbed him to the heart. 

He was buried on the high mound which gave name to 
Mound street, and was then called Grand Terre, and in latter 
days Big Mound, but which is now entirely removed, and 
the remains of the Osage chief, as well as other remains, from 
which they could not be distinguished, scattered. 

Many small, rude and trifling ornaments, made of sea and 
other shells, bone, clay, and two of copper, were also found, 
but nothing that would enrich a cabinet or add anything to 
science. The Missouri Historical Society of St. Louis have 
preserved photographs of it, and observed its removal, to 



22 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

ascertain whether it was the work of nature or art, and have 
ascertained, beyond a doubt, that it was the work of nature 
only. Tlie Osages appear never to have noticed the death of 
the chief. If they did, his death was avenged in secret, as no 
hostile demonstration was made then or since on their j)art. 
The Shawnees and Delawares were assigned lands at that time 
near Ste. Genevieve, and built villages on them and cultivated 
them, while the Spanish laws remained in force in the territory. 
When Gov. Piernas had administered the government live 
years with great moderation and satisfaction to the people, he 
left, amid their tears and benedictions, for New Orleans. 

He was succeeded, in 1775, by Don Francisco Cruzat, a most 
mild and agreeable gentleman, who conducted his administra- 
tion so quietly in the healthful channels of his predecessor 
that he was considered a man of very ordinary capacity then, 
but whom the good and wise will always desire to praise and 
imitate, as he made all about him happy, contented and 
prosperous. 

It was during this administration that a ferry was estab- 
lished, by John Baptiste Gamasche, across the Merrimac. His 
family was as remarkable and as much beloved as himself, 
and has been one of those who have early assisted to form the 
social, moral and hospitable character of the people. Trade 
in British goods was so much restricted at that time by the 
Spanish laws that the people of St. Louis dealt largely in con- 
traband goods, and added much to their commercial profits by 
smuggling their goods through Cahokia and Kaskaskia. He 
occupied the same house, on the northeast corner of Main and 
Walnut streets, which Piernas had done before him ; it 
was one of the first built in St. Louis, and was the seat of 
hospitality and the high school of fashion during both their 
administrations. 

Three men had now administered the Government in the 
twelve preceding years to the satisfaction of the governed, and 
had been sustained by the unfaltering aid and advice of Pierre 
Laclede Liguest, the founder of the town. 

All the inhabitants were contented, prosperous and happy, 
when, in the summer of 1778, Don Fernando de Leyba, a 
drunken, avaricious and feeble-minded man, without a single 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



23 



redeeming qualification, arrived and succeeded Gov. Francisco 
Cruzat as Governor. 

Great Britain and lier colonies were at war. The French and 
Spaniards were regarded as allies of the colonies, and liable to 
be suddenly attacked at any point. This was the condition of 
St. Louis, as developed by the news, on the arrival of Leyba. 

To this sad condition of aifairs was soon added the report of 
the death of Pierre Laclede Liguest, while on a visit to JSTew 
Orleans, about midway of his journey. 

As his life forms a very interesting part of the history of 
St. Louis, no more appropriate place can be selected than this 
to describe him as he has generally been represented by his 
contemporaries after his death. 

Pierre Laclede Liguest was born in Bion, France, near the 
base of the Pyrenees mountains, the line between France and 
Spain, in the the year 1724. He was about five feet eleven 
inches in height, of very dark complexion, black, piercing and 
expressive eyes, a large nose, and expansive forehead. He 
died on the 20th of June, 1778, in his batteau, on the Missis- 
sippi, of a fever, and was buried on the banks of the Missis- 
sippi just below its confluence with the Arkansas river, in the 
wild solitude of that region, without a stone or tomb to mark 
the spot where this enterprising merchant lies. 

His history while in Missouri, however, lives, and must live 
as long as the city he founded retains its name. 

Being of a brave and adventurous disposition, he had col- 
lected many followers in his native countiy for the declared 
purpose of establishing a colony in the French possessions in 
America. This he fully accomplished in the most peaceful 
manner, and in the choice of his location has left a monument 
to his wisdom as durable as the rocks on which he built 
his city. 

He left a host of friends to lament his loss, speak his praise 
and enjoy his labors, but no widow to shed a tear or child to 
inherit his property or his name. 

His partner, Antoine Maxent, a Spanish officer at New 
Orleans, got possession of his property and disposed of it in 
the following year, 1779, for a trifling sum, and left no slab to 
his memory. The inhabitants of the town, presided over by 
an unpopular and feeble magistrate, and suiTounded by many 



24 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

warlike omens, became alarmed at their defenseless condition, 
and, neglecting the cultivation of their grounds, threw up a 
trench about the town protected by a stockade and pointed 
brush, with three gates — one on each of the three sides. This, 
together with a small two-story stone fort, called La Tour, sit- 
uated near the present junction of Fourth and Walnut streets, 
formed their feeble defense, and with four small cannons in the 
fort, were manned with one small company of Spanish soldiers 
and the citizens generally. 

During the first months of the season so many had been em- 
ployed about the defense that the crops had been much neg- 
lected, and fears of a famine in the spring of 1780 began to dis- 
turb them more than the fears of Indians, and they went forth 
to their common fields and planted largely to supply the defi- 
ciency of the preceding year. 

Early in the spring of this year the British ofiicer in com- 
mand of Fort Michilimacknac planned an attack on St. Louis, 
and with four French Canadians who had been in the employ- 
ment of the Indian fur traders as conductors, named Du- 
cliarme, Quennelle, Calvi and Langdon, collected more than 
one thousand warriors of the Upper Mississippi tribes of Indi- 
ans to carry it into execution. The warriors assembled 
according to appointment, and on the morning of the 26tli day 
of May, 1780, crossed the Mississippi a little above the village, 
near Gingrass creek, and by a circuitous route came upon the 
early cultivators of the common fields before one-half the 
laborers had left the village gates. The surprise was mutual. 
The Indians at finding so few at labor in the common fields, 
and those nearly all active young men who could run as fast 
as themselves into town ; the villagers at finding themselves 
attacked at that hour of the day from the rear of the fields. 
The savages commenced the attack by horrid yeWs that were 
heard over the whole village and brought all the men to its 
defense. The Indians killed forty of the inhabitants and pur- 
sued the fugitives to within reach of the cannon from the tower, 
which had been kept ready, and were discharged on them, 
and which, by its noise and shot suddenly plowing up the earth 
near them, frightened them into a retreat to their canoes, 
when they left the vicinity, taking twelve or fifteen prisoners, 
most of whom afterward returned. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 25 

This massacre was a sad calamity to the village and filled 
many houses with mourning. Yet there is consolation in 
looking back on the events of the preceding day and consider- 
ing how much worse it would have been had the attack been 
made on the day before in the afternoon. 

The day before was the feast of Corpus Christi, a day conse- 
crated by the Catholics with all the religious observances of 
the Church. In the morning the little church, decorated for 
the occasion, was crowded by the happy villagers, in their best 
attire, to hear Father Bernard, the officiating priest. In the 
afternoon they went in crowds to gather wild strawberries, 
which were very abundant on the prairie just beyond the com- 
mon fields. Had the Indians then attacked the village there 
could have been no doubt of its unhappy fate. The pleasures 
and amusements of the day, however, caused many to rise 
later than usual on that next unhappy day, and thus saved 
their village and their lives. The occurrence gave name to the 
year, Vannee du coup, the year of the blow. Had the Indians 
been led by one resolute and efficient chief, there can be no 
doubt their enterprise would have been crowned with complete 
success. But having been collected by four illiterate and cow- 
ardly foreigners, who failed to join them in the attack, the 
first sign of opposition threw them into a panic, and, like a 
flock of frightened deer, they fied to their canoes, crossed the 
Mississij^pi, and hastened to their remote and scattered homes. 

The total failure of the enterprise and the wide-spread report 
of the frightened savages prevented any further demonstra- 
tions by red men against the high fenced house of thunder, or 
the people who lived within hearing of it. This gave the vil- 
lagers an opportunity of discussing the conduct of their Gov- 
ernor, both before and at the time of the slaughter. 

That he was a sot was never questioned ; that^he had sold 
the powder of the garrison to some traders before the attack, 
was proved;. and that he used but little precaution to prevent 
surprise, was apparent from his. constantly repelling any idea 
of a possibility of a surprise. Suggestions were made that he 
had agreed with the English, for a stipulated sum, to let the 
savages surprise the town, but it was not necessary to furnish 
this proof to consign his character to ignominious oblivion and 
his name, as a Governor, to lasting contempt. Lady Marie de 
3 



26 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

la Concpptione j Zezar, his wife, had died the antumn "before, 
and was buried in the cemetery of the church, and Don Fer- 
nando de Leyba died on the 28th day of June, 1780, and was 
buried by her side. After his death the duties of Lieutenant- 
Grovernor were performed by Lieut. Silvio Francisco Cartabona 
until the arrival of Don Francisco Cruzat. 

On entering upon the administration of the duties of Governor 
of Upper Louisiana the second time, after an absence of two 
years, he commenced the regular fortifications of the town, 
which were a strong stockade of posts, a bastion, and stone forts 
at proper intervals, which effectually protected the lives and 
property of the inhabitants of St. Louis from any attacks from 
savages afterward. It should be borne in mind that Missouri 
Indians have not destroyed a single hamlet in Missouri or 
fought a battle on her soil with Europeans. Upper Mississippi 
Indians, instigated by the British, committed the great mas- 
sacre of the 26th of May, 1780, without any other cause or 
provocation. 

During the building of the fortifications, and until the peace 
of 1783, a considerable garrison was maintained, and pro- 
visions were dearer in St. Louis than in the towns on the 
Wabash, whose inhabitants occasionally came to St. Louis 
to trade, and noticing the high price of bread in particular, 
which they inferred arose from its scarcity, and to tease the 
St. Louisians, nick-named their town Pain Court, literally, in 
French, short of bread, which has perpetuated the memory of 
that fact to this day. 

The popularity of the mild and amiable Cruzat, and his 
liberal policy in former years, [attracted many new settlers to 
Missouri from the French villages of Cahokia and Kaskaskia, 
and the town was growing apace, when a slow, but most 
astonishing and irresistible fright fell upon the inhabitants of 
St. Louis, even greater than the late threatenings of famine and 
savages. In the early part of the summer of 1785 the Missis- 
sippi had risen to it usual hight, but still continued to rise ; 
the whole American Bottom was covered with a sea of swift 
running water, which bore on its bosom thousands of whole 
trees, with their roots and branches exposed, accompanied by 
everything that swollen rivers can bear away, all rushing to- 
ward the ocean with a swiftness and majesty that astonished 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 27 

every beholder. The villages of Cahokia and Kaskaskia were 
surrounded by the rushing waters, sweeping away grain, stock 
and all the labors of the husbandmen. Still the waters con- 
tinued to rise and threatened to inundate the town itself and 
sweep it from existence. Nearly all of the tow n was then sit- 
uated on Main street, and when the water had risen above the 
banks and began to invade their dwellings their terror and 
apprehensions were very distressing, as there were ancient 
signs of even higher waters still visible. Just as the inhabit- 
ants were about to commence moving their property to the 
higher bank, where Fourth street now is, the river began to 
subside and relieve their fears, after having taught them that 
it is possible for the river to rise much higher than they saw it 
and yet leave them a place of safety. 

This year was denominated by the French Vannee des 
grands eaux (the year of great waters). Many persons who 
had been compelled by the high water to leave the American 
Bottom, on the subsidence of the waters made St. Louis their 
abode, and assisted in giving activity to its growth and charac- 
ter to its inhabitants, as they were mostly peaceful Canadian 
Creoles. Such was the character of the people of St. Louis 
that, during the French and Spanish domination, but one 
murder was committed, and that was perpetrated by a Span- 
ish soldier on one of his comrades, whom he had stabbed to 
the heart in a sudden quarrel, for which he was immediately 
ironed and sent to New Orleans for trial. Though the com- 
merce of St. Louis was never disturbed by the Indians, yet it 
was much damaged after the close of the American Revolu- 
tionary war by piratical bands of lawless white men, runaway 
negroes, mulattoes and half-breed Indians. 

These marauders became the terror of Mississippi boatmen 
and merchants navigating the river for several years. They 
generally located themselves in the vicinity of the Grand Tower, 
a rock fifty feet in hight, located about midway between the 
mouths of the Missouri and Ohio rivers, where the Mississippi 
is confined by solid rocks to one swift channel near its base, at 
which point those navigating barges up stream were generally 
in the habit of going along the shore in advance of their barges 
and drawing them with ropes along near the shore. Near this 
pass the pirates would lurk and suddenly attack the navigators 



28 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

when off their guard, seize the merchandize and leave no one 
to tell the tale. 

These acts gave rise to many sad and romantic tales, related 
about the hearths and camp fires of the early settlers of 
Missouri. 

One of the most interesting forms a part of the history of 
Missouri and St. Louis, and was written by Hon. Wilson Primm, 
present Judge of the St. Louis Criminal Court, more than thirty 
years ago, while he was a law student, and while yet many 
persons still live in St. Louis who knew the parties and could 
verify most of the facts. It was read by himself before the 
members of the St. Louis Lyceum, in 1838, and in his own 
words, connected with his name, goes down to posterity as the 
real history of the past : 

" A band of pirates were located at Cottonwood creek, com- 
manded by two men named Culbert and Magilbra}^ In the 
spring of 1787 a barge belonging to Mr. Beausolid had started 
from New Orleans richly laden with merchandise for St. Louis. 
As she approaclied Cottonwood creek a breeze sprang up and 
bore it swiftly by. This the robbers perceived, and imme- 
diately dispatched a company of men up the river for the pur- 
pose of heading it. The maneuver was effected in the course 
of two days at an island, which has since been called Beausolid 
Island. The barge had just pushed ashore ; the robbers 
boai'dnd and ordered the crew to return down. The men were 
disarmed ; guards were stationed in every part of the vessel, 
and she was soon under way. Mr. Beausolid gave himself up 
to despair. He had all he possessed in the i)urchase of the 
barge and its cargo, and now that he was to be deprived of 
them all he was in agony. 

"The vessel would have shared the fate of many others that 
had preceded it but for the heroic daring of a negro who was 
one of the crew. Casotte, the negro, was a man rather under 
the ordinary hight, very slender in person, but of extraordinary 
strength and activity. The color of his skin and curl of his 
hair alone told that he was a negro, for the peculiar character- 
istics of his race had given place in him to what might be 
termed beauty. His forehead was finely moulded, his eyes 
small and sparkling as those of a serpent, his nose aquiline, 
his lips of proper thickness ; in fact the whole appearance of 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



29 



tlie man, joined to his known character for shrewdness and 
courage, seemed to indicate that nnder better circumstances he 
might have shown conspicuously in the history of nations. 

" Casotte, as soon as the robbers had taken possession of the 
barge, began to malve every demonstration of uncontrollable 
joy. He danced, sang, laughed, and soon induced his captors 
to believe that they had delivered him from irksome slavery, 
and that his actions were the ebullitions of pleasure. His con- 
stant attention to all their smallest wants and wishes won their 
confidence, and whilst they kept a watchful eye on the other 
prisoners, they permitted him to roam through the vessel un- 
molested and unwatched. 

" This was the state of things that the negro desired. He 
seized the first opportunity to speak to Mr. Beausolid, and beg 
permission to rid him of his dangerous intruders. He laid his 
plan before his master, who, after a great deal of hesitation, 
acceded to it. Casotte then spoke to two of the crew, likewise 
negroes, and engaged them in the conspiracy. Casotte was 
cook, and it was agreed between him and his fellow-conspira- 
tors that the signal for dinner should be the signal for action. 

" The hour of dinner at length arrived. The robbers assem- 
bled in considerable numbers on the deck and stationed them- 
selves at the bow and stern and along the sides, to prevent any 
rising of the men. Casotte went among them with the most 
unconscious look and demeanor imaginable. As soon as he 
perceived his comrades had taken the stations he had assigned 
them, he took his position at the bow of the boat, near one of 
the robbers, a stout, herculean man, armed cap-a-pie. Every- 
thing being arranged to his satisfaction, Casotte gave the pre- 
concerted signal, and immediately the robber near him was 
struggling in the water. With the speed of lightning he went 
from one robber to another, and in less than three minutes he 
had thrown fourteen of them overboard. Then seizing an oar 
he struck on the head those who attempted to save themselves 
by grappling the running boards,*then shot with the muskets 
that had been dropped on deck those who swam away. In the 
meantime, the other conspirators were not idle, but did almost 
as much execution as their leader. The deck was soon cleared, 
and the robbers that remained below were too few in number 
to ofi'er any resistance. Having got rid of his troublesome 




30 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

visitors, Mr. Beausolid deemed it prudent to return to New 
Orleans. This he accordingly did, taking care when he arrived 
at Cottonwood creek to keep the opposite side of the river. 

" He reached New Orleans and gave an account of his cap- 
ture and liberation to the Governor, who therefore issued an 
order that the boats bound for St. Louis in the following spring 
should all go in company, to afford mutual assistance in case 
of necessity. Spring came, and ten keel boats, each provided 
with swivels and their respective crews well armed, took their 
departure from New Orleans, determined, if possible, to destroy 
most of the robbers. When they neared the Cottonwood creek 
the foremost boat perceived several men near the mouth among 
the trees. The anchor was dropped and she waited until the 
other boats should come up. In a few moments they appeared, 
and a consultation was held, in which it was determined that a 
sufficient number of men should remain on board whilst the 
others should proceed on shore to attack the robbers. The 
boats were rowed to shore in line, and those appointed for that 
purpose landed and began to search the island in quest of the 
robbers in vain. They had disappeared. Three or four flat- 
boats were found in the bend of the creek, laden with all kinds 
of valuable merchandise, the fruits of their depredations. A 
long, low hut was discovered — the dwelling of the robbers — in 
which were stowed away numerous cases of guns, destined for 
the fur trade, and ammunition and provisions of all kinds. 
The greater part of these things were put on board the boats 
*nd restored to their respective owners in St. Louis. This pro- 
ceeding had the effect of dispersing the robbers, for they were 
never after heard of. The arriv^al of ten barges together at St. 
Louis was an unusual spectacle, and the year 1788 has ever 
since been called Vanee des dix hateaux (the year of the ten 
boats). In this year the authority of Francisco Cruzat ceased. 
His administrations had both been mild, but not brilliant. He 
had fortified the town and made its position widely known and 
permanent. It had thereby become the repository of the valu- 
able merchandise that was to supply the vast regions to the 
nortti and west, the bounds of which were not known. He left 
lasting marks of the interest he felt in the safety and welfare 
of those he governed, and retired without a stain on his peaceful 
and quiet character. The town and surrounding villagers in- 



HISTORY OF ST, LOUIS AND MISSOURI, 31 

eluded in the St. Louis district tlien contained eleven hundred 
and ninet3^-seven inhabitants, and the district of Ste, Genevieve 
eiglit hundred, exclusive of the Shawnee and Delaware Indians, 
who, on the invitation of Governor Piernas, wer-e then essaying 
agriculture and had several small villag-es in that vicinity. 
Don Manuel Perez succeeded Governor Cruzat as Commandant 
General of Upper Louisiana, and both he and his family were 
so much like Governor Cruzat and his family that the differ- 
ence in their names was about all the change the peaceful 
people of St. Louis could perceive. They pursued their usual 
avocations and amusements with, the same zest and pleasure 
as before, and with the same happy and beneficial results, 

"The merchants of St. Louis enjoyed two markets, one by 
K'ew Orleans, the other by Canada, after the peace of 1783, and 
feared no hostile attack from Indians. Yet, from policj^ and 
prudence, the commandant, to carry out the already begun 
scheme of Gov. Piernas to interpose the Shawnee and Delaware 
Indians between the feeble settlements and the Western Indians, 
who, although they never made war or a direct attack u^^on a 
large scale, lurked about the settlement and frequently killed 
an indiscreet inhabitant found wandering too far from town. 
He employed a Mr. Lorimer in this business and effected his 
object, and Mr, Lorimer received a grant of thirty thousand 
acres of land as his reward. 

" The Indians also received large tracts and settled on them, 
near Cape Girardeau, and partially fulfilled their engagements 
as to affording protection from other Indians, but occasionally 
committed the same outrages themselves they had engaged to 
prevent Thus one of the inhabitants of St. Louis — one of the 
present well known family of Duchouquette — was set upon 
while alone near Chouteau's pond, by a small party of the Dela- 
wares, then called by the French Les Loups (wolves), murdered 
and scalped. His brother, Francis Duchouquette, was at some 
distance and saw the Indians kill him, and immediately brought 
the news to town. Officer Tayon, with a company of men, 
started in immediate pursuit, and, taking a circuitous route, 
came unexpectedly upon the party, when Duchouquette, 
singling out the Indian who had killed his brother, and whose 
scalp hung at his belt, shot him in the thigh, which felled him 



32 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

to the ground. He was soon despatched by a soldier, and four 
more of the party killed in the pursuit. This act of the Dela- 
wares, at the threshold of the Governor's headquarters, ruined 
the character of the Delawares, and the Shawnees suffered a 
loss of confidence. They were no longer desired as neighbors, 
confided in as friends, or respected as men, but feared, dis- 
trusted and shunned, until they abandoned their village and 
lands and returned to the forests and the chase." 



CHAPTER III. 

The Happy Days of St. Louis and Missouri — TTte Transfer 
of the Country from Spain to France., and from France to 
the United States. 

Tlie administration of Manuel Perez, as Commandant Gen- 
eral of the post of St. Louis, extended from 1788 to 1793, and 
was so mild and satisfactory that the people appear, at this 
day, to have obtained from him all they desired, and to have 
rewarded him by the most perfect conformity to his wishes, so 
that we are now unable to determine which party was best 
pleased, the governor or the governed. He was very liberal, 
and, so far as we can discover, granted them all the lands they 
desired, and encouraged foreigners to participate in his boun- 
ties like his own people. 

"When Zenon Trudeau, his successor, arrived, he resigned his 
autliority to him with as much apparent pleasure as he had 
performed any other duty, and retired with the love and respect 
of all liis people. 

The people had become so much accustomed to kind rulers 
that they received their new magistrate with apparent plea- 
sure, and seem never to have had the least occasion to regret 
the change. Indeed, he walked so uniformly in the steps of 
his predecessor that no change was perceptible in the adminis- 
tration of those two amiable officers. 

The prosperity and happiness of the people are the best 
records of both their administrations. When the Commandant 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. ^^ 

General, Trudeau, entered on the performance of the duties of 
his office he seemed to be performing the hibors his predeces- 
sor had laid out for him, only he enlarged the scale. 

The fear of the Indians daily decreased, and white men 
pushed their enterprises still further into the wilderness and 
enlarged their farms and flocks. Extraordinary inducements 
were offered to settlers on the Spanish domain. Large grants 
of land were made to citizens of the United States and inter- 
course encouraged. 

There were no mails or taverns, but every house was a wel- 
come home to the new comers, for some one was to hear from 
distant friends and the outside world. Therefore the stranger 
was an acquisition, not a burden, in every house, and his 
society sought for and appreciated. Business and trades of 
all kinds Avere extended and encouraged. 

Huts gave place to houses, moccasins to shoes, and the chase 
to agriculture. Large and more frequent surveys were made, 
and new fields and new villages occupied the former haunts of 
the buffalo and elk. 

His family was as much beloved and respected as himself, 
and both mingled with the people as though all of the same 
family without exhibiting any external marks of distinction, 
while their people seemed about to overwhelm them with 
attention and kindness. This popular officer also retired with 
the universal regret of all his people, from an office which they 
would have wished to have him fill during life, and died at 
New Orleans a few years later. It is seldom that an import- 
ant office is filled so many times in succession with a popular 
incumbent. St. Louis, however, had been singularly fortunate 
in its first magistrate during the three last administrations ; 
although nothing transcendantly brilliant had been accom- 
plished, still the people appear to have enjoyed all they 
desired. 

The beloved Zenon Trudeau was succeeded in 1798 by 
Charles Dehault Delassus de Delusiere, a native of France, 
who had been long in the Spanish service, and was promoted 
to the office of Lieutenant Governor of Upper Louisiana, from 
being Commandant of the Post of New Madrid, in reward of 
his long and faithful services in the army. 

The first act of his j^dministration was to show the prosper- 



34 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

ous condition liis predecessor had left the country in, hy at 
once taking the census, which showed the population to 
amount to six thousand and twenty-eight, of which one thou- 
sand and eighty were colored. 

This exposition of the faithful administration of his prede-" 
cessor confirmed him in the esteem of the people, which he 
retained for the quarter of a century that followed in which he 
was a most conspicuous actor. 

The wars of Europe, the uncertain tenure of title to the ter- 
ritory and office, the mixed laws of the two countries, and the 
numberless interests requiring attention, kept the mind of the 
Governor brilliant and active. He was a gentleman of the 
most agreeable and fascinating manners, and bore one of the 
kindest and lightest hearts that ever filled a Frenchman's 
bosom. Moreover, he w^as unmarried, and had power to make 
unlimited grants of land in all^ the territory of Upper Lou- 
isiana. 

Tradition says, St. Louis belles and land lovers had the 
same propensities then, and used the same arts and arguments 
as at this day to win attentions and rich concessions, and the 
result was natural. The bachelor Governor obtained the hand 
of the prettiest lady, and land-seekers the choicest tracts in 
the territory. The price of occupying those grants was fre- 
quently the hazard of their lives for years, although there was 
no open war. The wilderness was all traveled over by explor- 
ers for mines and choice locations, and the office of the Gov- 
ernor was filled and surrounded by speculators and carpet- 
baggers at that early day as the offices at Washington are at 
this, and for the same selfish purposes. The administration of 
Gov. Delassus closed with the Spanish domination in Louisi- 
ana, and had been conducted with such wisdom, kindness and 
success, that he laid down his authority on the transfer of the 
country to the United States with apparent pleasure, and with 
his young family took his position as an American citizen 
among the people, and continued his residence in St. Louis for 
the next twenty years. The three administrations immediately 
preceding his had been so very mild, peaceful and popular 
that it seemed to require a quarter of a century to excel all 
of them. 

He, however, accomplished it in five years of his administra- 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 35 

tion, and tlien enjoyed twent}'' years of sweet repose among 
those whom he had benefited all in his power. How few 
among men ever enjoy such a reward ! It may afford pleasure 
to some to learn that his son has returned from France and is 
making Missouri his home, and showing by his benevolence 
the traits of his ancestry. 

The United States authority in Missouri dates from the lOtli 
day of March, 1804. There were then in the Territory ten 
thousand three hundred and forty inhabitants, of which one 
thousand three hundred and twenty were colored. 

The village of St. Louis contained one hundred and eighty 
houses, built of hewn logs and stone, the latter being generally 
the residences of the most wealtliy, and surrounded by a wall 
of the same material, enclosing the whole block, which contin- 
ued in use many years protecting the fine fruit trees which 
shaded the mansion. Soon after the change of government 
the mode of building with wood changed, and frame houses 
became fashionable and common, and logs went out of use as 
building materials. There were but one bakery, two small 
taverns, three blacksmiths, two mills and one doctor in the 
town. Wood was the only fuel used. No brick had then 
been made, or a street paved or graded. The village, however, 
was well supplied with merchants, but they held their goods 
at enormous prices. Coffee and sugar each at two dollars per 
pound, and everything else in proportion. Their places of 
business were very much scattered, and commonly in the fam- 
ily mansion of each, in which one might find the greatest vari- 
ety of goods, from a fish-hook to a lexicon. 

This was the condition of St. Louis on the lOtli of March, 
1804, when Major Amos Stoddard assumed the duties of Gov- 
ernor of Upper Louisiana, with all the authority of a Spanish 
commandant, and occupied the government house on the 
northeast corner of Main and Walnut streets. He was an offi- 
cer of great merit and. ability, and fulfilled his duties satisfac- 
torily for the short time he held the office. Sixteen days after 
he assumed the duties of the office. Congress, on the 26th day 
of March, 1804, divided the Louisiana province into two parts 
by the thirty-third parallel of latitude, and placed the northern 
district under the domination of Indiana, then including Illi- 
nois. This act of Congress was at once promulgated, and 



36 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

tilled the people with astonishment and alarm, as they had not 
got through with reading the circular address of their new 
Governor before this office was abolished, and their govern- 
ment turned over to a new lot of strangers residing beyond the 
Wabash river. They were, however, consoled by the presence 
of both their late Governors and their Secretaries, with their 
families, one of which was the late Hon. M. Philip Leduc, 
who so often filled responsible offices in after years, both under 
the Territorial and State governments. 

So cheering is the reminiscences of such people and their 
beneficent acts that it is dilFcult to pass on in the history with- 
out a more full description of them. It was the presence of 
such people that made life tolerable, and, indeed, happy under 
such circumstances, and gave character, progress and refine- 
ment to society in those days. 

Capt. Merriwether Lewis and Lieut. William Clarke had an 
exploring expedition then preparing at the mouth of Wood 
river, in Illinois, above St. Louis, to make their celebrated 
journey by the Missouri and Columbia rivers to the Pacific 
Ocean. 

The party left their encampment on the 14th of May, 1801, 
and were joined at St. Charles, on the 21st, by Capt. Lewis, the 
commander from St. Louis, to which place he returned after an 
absence of two years, four months and two days. This expe- 
dition somewhat diverted the attention of the people from their 
political affairs until the Presidential election in the States (in 
which they could take no part) began to tlireaten further 
changes. The stability and peaceful disposition of the people, 
in the presence of so many of their former officers, caused 
society to move forward, as if by its own momentum, in its old 
channels. In August, after the departure of Lewis and 
Clarke's expedition, Lieut. Zebulon Pike left his encampment, 
near St. Louis, to explore the Mississippi river to its source. 
The fitting out of these t^v"o expeditions, the opening of the 
Mississippi to free navigation, the influx of strangers and the 
establishment of a postoffice, created so much excitement that 
no complaints were made against the Government until the 
arrival of Gov. Wm. H. Harrison, of Indiana, whose duty it 
was to preside over this extensive district, which lately was 
under four different officers, acting as commandants — one at 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 37 

New Madrid, Don Juan Lavallie; one at Ste. Genevieve, Don 
Francis Valle ; one at Cape Girardeau, Don Louis Lorimer, and 
tlie Commandant General at St. Louis. Gov. Harrison met 
with the most kind reception, on his arrival, from all the in- 
habitants, and received every assurance of their most cordial 
support and obedience. 

Having learned the wants of the people, he returned, and, 
with the Judge of the territory of Indiana, on 1st of October, 
1804, passed such acts as were deemed necessary for the new 
district. His last official act for the district appears to have 
been performed on the 24th of April, 1805. Congress, however, 
on the 3d of March, 1805, had changed the name of the District 
of Louisiana to the Territory of Louisiana, and at the passage 
of the act. Gen. James Wilkinson was appointed Governor of 
the territory, and soon entered on the discharge of the duties 
of the office. 

The purchase of Louisiana from France by the United States, 
for fifteen millions of dollars, had now become known through 
Europe and America, and was received as a great and import- 
ant movement, and naturally attracted the eyes of the enter- 
prising to the wide field spread before them. 

The temperate climate of Upper Louisiana invited all to 
examine and consider its magnitude, productions and attrac- 
tions. St. Louis being the most accessible point from which 
to explore its vast regions, was visited by great numbers of 
travelers, traders and adventurers of every description, as the 
reputation of the heterogeneous population of the town pro- 
mised fellowship to all classes, castes and colors. 

Even the celebrated Aaron Burr thought it worthy of a visit 
from him, and the tender of his patronage to its highest officer. 

All these united to increase the notoriety of St. Louis and 
accelerate its groAvth. The indiscretion of Burr, however, led 
him to so far unmask his designs that Gov. Wilkinson was 
ordered to watch his traitorous movements in person, which 
withdrew him from his duties as Governor of the Territory. In 
the meantime the expedition of Lewis and Clarke had returned 
from the Pacific Ocean and filled the country with their fame. 
To fill the office now vacant by the withdrawal of Gen. Wilk- 
inson, Capt, ]\Ierriwether Lewis was appointed Governor of the 
Territory by the President, and hailed with universal approba- 



38 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

tion. In all these changes the public peace, or course of busi- 
ness and amusements, had not been checked or disturbed ; on 
the contrary, the kindest and most hospitable feeling every- 
where manifested itself. New comers were regarded as acqui- 
sitions, and aided in locating themselves in comfortable quart- 
ers and finding employment. If they had families they were 
visited, and taken by the hand as friends who merited atten- 
tion, encouragement and patronage from every citizen. While 
these mighty changes were silently going on among men to 
improve and govern themselves, the Mississippi was as silently 
making changes to accommodate itself, which has resulted in 
most wonderfully increasing the labor of establishing a govern- 
ment for it beyond the calculations of the most scientific at 
the commencement of this century. 

At that time the Mississippi was narrow and swift in front 
of the village, and washed the limestone bluff from the north- 
east of the Spanish fortress to Market street, from thence to 
the mouth of ISIill creek, near the southeast Spanish stone fort — 
(the sight of the gasworks). It passed in a straight channel 
about seventy-five feet deep, the shores being so near each 
other that the calls of people from the opposite shore could be 
distinctly heard. There had then been no such lands as Bloody 
Island, Duncan's Island, or Arsenal Island. They are deposits 
made by the river in the present century. 

A heavily timbered tract of land, about half a mile wide, 
covered the site of Bloody Island and East St. Louis, which 
was gradually washed away, and the river widened thereby, 
causing a corresponding decrease in the velocity of the stream, 
and the formation of bars and islands at other places. The 
place of crossing the Mississippi from Cahokia was for many 
years from that place to the present Arsenal tract, where there 
was and still is a good landing on low rocky ledges. 

In 1792 and 1793 the small stream L'Abbe, or Cahokia creek, 
being frozen. Judge Pigott, of St. Clair county, Illinois, essayed 
to build a bridge across the stream opposite St. Louis. The 
stream was then only one hundred and fifty feet wide, and 
Judge Pigott an enterprising and energetic man, yet so hercu- 
lean was that labor that with his small means he spent three 
winters at the bridge, and finished it in 1795, after Gen. Wayne 
had subdued the confederate Indians at Auglaize, or Miami. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 39 

Tradition says lie liad chopped down most of the trees to build 
it with his own hands, while his rifle leaned against another 
tree, prepared to be nsed on the Indian foes who, during the 
first two winters, swarmed on the prairies of Illinois, Indiana 
and Ohio. Having built two log cabins, and hollowed and 
burned out some Indian canoes or pirogues, and put a platform 
on a pair of thenfi for carrjdng teams during the next two years, 
he was ready, in 1797, to apply to that good Governor, Zenon 
Trudeau, for a license lor establishing the jirst^ and what is 
noiD the Wiggins, ferry. 

His success, on application, was such as comported with the 
character of the two gentlemen. The Governor not only granted 
his petition, but went further, making him a citizen and granting 
him permission to put his ferry-house on the 'place d'armes^ 
near the east end of Market street, where he continued his 
ferry until his death, in 1799. 

The name of Cai^tain James Pigott deserves a high place 
among the early benefactors of St. Louis for this act, as it 
opened a direct communication between the city and the opposite 
shore, whereas, before the establishment of his ferry, the only 
means of crossing was in bateaux from near Oahokia to the 
present U. S. Arsenal grounds. An island was then located 
near the Illinois shore, extending from opposite where the East 
St. Louis Elevator now stands to opposite the Arsenal grounds, 
having a swift, narrow chute on the east side. 

The Mississippi at that period had no other obstruction from 
Bisseirs Point to Carondelet. In 1800 a small sandbar made 
its appearance near the Illinois shore just below the point, and 
deflected a portion of the river more directly on the Illinois 
shore, which was then covered with a dense forest of the largest 
trees usually found in the American Bottom from the river to 
the L'Abbe or Cahokia creek, distant half a mile eastwardly. 
This tongue of land was also thickly overgrown with grape 
and wild pea vines, and afforded shelter for the Indians who 
came to trade at St. Louis, and forage for their horses, and at 
a later period for cattle. 

• The large trees growing near the water began to be under- 
mined, and falling into the river floated away, exjoanding the 
channel on the east of the bar, affording a constantly increasing 
current, which at the end of the first quarter of this century had 



40 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

washed away so much of the alluvial soil of Illinois that half 
of the Mississippi passed on the east of the bar or Bloody- 
Island, as it had now come to be called on account of several 
duels having been fought on it. 

In the meantime its location had become greatly changed 
and its size increased. The upper end had greatly washed 
away and the middle expanded ; large deposits of sand had 
been made at the lower end by each Hood, until, at the end of 
the half century, it divided the Mississipj)i in two nearl}^ equal 
parts, and presented its western shore on the same place where 
the Illinois shore was in 1800. It formed a striking feature in 
front of a great city, and caused the old natives to review the 
wonderful changes they had witnessed. The old, narrow 
channel of the Mississippi, that was seventy-five feet deep in 
1800, was occupied by Duncan's Island, and steamboats 
grounded in front of the old village site of that date. 

The island that once covered the Illinois shore opposite the 
lower part of the city had long since been washed away, and 
Arsenal Island, and other obstructions to navigation near the 
city, had presented themselves, which have since taxed the 
wisdom of the learned to avoid herculean labor or the loss of 
the river. 

We return to our direct history of the city, having by our 
digression presented, as we think, a necessary description of 
the features of the river. 

The administration of James Wilkinson, as Governor of the 
Territory of Louisiana, commenced at St. Louis, May 6, 1806. 
He had associated with him, in the performance of his legis- 
lative duties, Hon. John B. C. Lucas and Return J. Meigs, Jr. ; 
Judge Joseph Browne, Secretary. 

They passed seven public acts, and each signed the acts, 
with his name to each particular act. The last act was dated 
July 9th, 1806. 

Gov. James Wilkinson was then ordered by President Jef- 
ferson to leave the territory and watch the movements of the 
ex- Vice-President, Aaron Burr. The duties of the Governor 
then devolved on the Secretary of the Territory, Joseph 
Browne. 

In the meantime Hon. Otho Shrader had taken the place of 
Judge Meigs, and their first act was passed October 28th, 1806, 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 4I 

and signed Joseph Browne, John B. C. Lucas, Otho Shrader. 

This appears to have been the last official act of Secretary 
Browne, and the only one where he acted ex officio as Gov- 
ernor. Hon. Frederick Bates was appointed Secretary of the 
territory, and on the 7th of May, 1807, signed his first act as 
acting Governor in legislation, assisted by Judges Lucas and 
Shrader. These gentlemen passed several acts during the 
year, and in one of them the name of Judge John Coburn 
appears among them as officiating in legislation. 

On the 30th of April, 1806, Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike returned 
to St. Louis from exploring the Mississippi to its source. He 
was soon after ordered, by Gov. Wilkinson, to prepare for 
escorting and returning to their former friends and relatives 
fifty-one Osage and Pawnee Indians, who had been redeemed 
from captivity among the Pottawatomies, by the United States. 
This order, dated June 21st, 1806, was followed by another 
dated July 12th, 1806, and, together, formed the instructions 
which resulted in his being apprehended with his party in the 
Spanish territory, and conducted to Mexico, from whence he 
returned to Natchitoches, on July 1st, 1807. 

These acts of kindness and humanity explain why those two 
powerful nations were always friendly with Missourians. 

As an evidence that it was not by largesses they dwelt in 
peace with white men, we have Gov. Wilkinson's letter to 
Lieut. Pike, in which he says : 

"To disburse your necessary expenses and to aid your 
negotiations, you are herewith furnished six liundred dollars 
worth of goods, for the appropriation of which you are to 
render a strict account, vouched by documents to be attested 
by one of your party." 

Before the result of Gov. Wilkinson's investigations had 
developed the design of Aaron Burr, the expedition under 
Lewis and Clarke had returned from exploring the Missouri 
and Columbia rivers, and they had taken up their residence in 
St. Louis. 

President Jefferson, well knowing the qualifications of Capt. 
Lewis to fill the office of Governor of a territory of such vast 
extent, peopled, as most of it was, by Indians who knew his 
character and appreciated it, appointed him to that office early 
in 1807, which gave universal satisfaction to the people, as he 
4 



42 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

was a very popular and agreeable gentleman. The progress 
of improvement in those early days was not rapid. The age 
of invention had not arrived with the advent of Americans. 

A postoffice was established in 1804, with a mail once in 
each week to Cahokia, and the communication with Illinois 
was considered easy then. 

The Pigott Ferry was kept in operation and well patronized, 
and one was also in limited operation below the village. The 
exports from the territory, however, consisted of lead, furs and 
peltries only. 

The increase in population was slow, being 925 in 1799, and 
11 years after only 1,400— in 1810. 

The embargo of 1807, and the non-intercourse with England 
of 1809, had a withering influence on the prosperity of St. 
Louis, as on other commercial towns. Yet its attractions were 
not entirely hidden from the eyes of far-seeing men. When 
the embargo had prostrated almost every enterprise through- 
out the country, Mr. Joseph Charles, in July, 1808, commenced 
the publication of a weekly newspaper, which is the present 
Missouri Repuhlican, and has not missed an issue at the 
appointed time since, and is its own historian now. 

The gloom that hung over commercial afi'airs then seemed 
to give very great uneasiness to all engaged in the fur trade at 
that period, and none appeared more aff'ected by it than Gov. 
Lewis. Beep sympathy with his suftering people seemed to 
have seized upon him. His friends used all the means that 
friendship could suggest to rouse him from mental depression, 
for which they saw no other cause. 

At length, early in the autumn of 1809, they persuaded him 
to visit Louisville, and while on his journey thither he deliber- 
ately destroyed his life with his own pistol. He was pitied 
and mourned as his worth deserved. His explorations had 
furnished a lasting monument to his memory, and materials 
for many elegies as tributes to his virtues and exploits. He 
left no family to be afflicted by his unnatural end, but many 
sincere, sympathizing friends. 

The paciflc disposition of the Indians and attractions of the 
as yet unoccupied lands of Missouri had caused its whole sur- 
face to be explored for mines and minerals so thoroughly that 
the few who were disposed to labor found no difficulty in 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 43 

obtaining employment in business suited to their taste and 
capacity. 

There was probably never a happier or more contented peo- 
ple than the Missourians until some one became rich enough 
to live without labor. The law-abiding disposition of the 
early settlers is prominently exhibited by the fact that there 
was not a single conviction for murder during the first half 
century of its settlement, and half the houses of the inhab- 
itants had no locks in them or on them. The first public exe- 
cution for murder in Missouri was that of a young man for 
deliberately shooting his step-father, which was on the 16th of 
September, 1808, at St. Louis. Until the titles to grants of 
lands made by Spanish officers had been confirmed b}^ the 
United States' Commissioners very few attempts had been 
made to develop the mineral wealth of the territory, except in 
the lead regions, where small capital and skill were requisite. 
When most of the grants had been confirmed, and surveys 
made of public lands, and offices opened for their sale, the 
whole face of the country exhibited a visible change. Large 
square fields began to occupy the prairies and dwellings to 
dot the fringes of timber. The mines were wrought more skill- 
fully and with machinery. The salt springs in Howard 
county, bearing the name of "Boonslick," from the great Ken- 
tucky woodsman, Daniel Boone, require a special notice in 
connection with Missouri's early history. For many j^ears 
after the formation of the territorial government over Mis- 
souri the Boonslick country was the great centre of attraction 
to all emigrants seeking new homes on the west of the Missis- 
sippi. The fame of the salt works of Major James Morrison, 
conducted with such wonderful energy, skill, and success, had 
made it a point from which many travelers commenced their 
explorations and inquiries, and few places ever presented more 
wide-spread and fascinating prospects than this, or ever more 
bountifully repaid the advances made for its improvement. 

One of tlie first offices opened by the United States for the 
sale of lands on the west side of the Mississippi was in the 
vicinity of Boonslick, in 1818, and none was ever more over- 
whelmingly thronged with purchasers of the lands they were 
already cultivating. Some of these had located themselves on 
the public domain as soon as it had been purchased by the 



44 HrSTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI, 

United States, and, foregoing personal safety and the comforts 
of refined society, had plunged into the wilderness, and made 
their own home with their own hands. They had obeyed the 
territorial laws as required, and watched and protected its 
interests as their own. 

On the death of Gov. Merriwether Lewis, President James 
Madison appointed Benjamin Howard Governor of the Terri- 
tory of Louisiana, whose first legislative act was signed Octo- 
ber 25th, 1810, and his last October 31st, 1810. It has l^en a 
subject of universal remark that the people of Missouri were 
more satisfactorily governed without representation than they 
ever have since they elected their own Legislators. More than 
fifty years had now elapsed since the first settlement of Mis- 
souri, and yet the people had approved of all the acts of all 
their rulers except Leyba. 

The administration of Governor Howard was short, but very 
satisfactory to the people. 

He resigned his office as Governor of the Territory to accept 
the office of Brigadier-General of Rangers in the war of 1812, 
and, having served with great credit to himself during three 
campaigns, died at St. Louis September 18, 1814. 

On his resignation, Capt. William Clarke, the companion of 
Capt. Lewis on the celebrated exploring expedition of the 
Missouri and Columbia rivers, was appointed Governor of the 
Teriitor}'-. Missouri had been raised to the second grade of 
territorial government, and elected its own House of Repre- 
sentatives, and the President appointed the Council, with the 
approval of the Senate. 

The first legislative act under Gov. Clarke's administration 
was approved on the 31st of December, 1813. George Bullet 
was then Speaker of the House and S. Hammond was Presi- 
dent of the Council. Gov. Clarke's administration continued 
until Missouri was admitted as a member of the Federal Union. 

The resignation of the office by Gov. Howard arose from his 
desire to render more efficient militar}^ service to his country 
in the capacity of a military chief than he could do as Governor 
in the struggle that his far-seeing eye noticed gathering about 
the Territory and disturbing and destroying its prosperity. 
He was not alone in the movements of the day for the general 
safety of the people. At that time Illinois had been detached 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 45 

from Indiana by an act of Congress of February 3, 1809, and 
the Governors of the three Territories of Indiana, Illinois and 
Missouri were all watching the movements and machinations 
of Tecumseh and his brother, Elshnatana, the prophet, with 
great solicitude, and making every preparation in their power, 
in unison with each other, to protect and defend their people 
and their property- 



CHAPTER IV. 



JRaid on Loutre Island hy the Indians^ and Death of several 
Prominent Citizens — The Battle of Tippecanoe^ and the First 
■Stea^iboat onthe Western Ri.Ders, in 1811 — The Or eat Earth- 
quake and Destruction of New Madrid. 

The purchase of Louisiana from France by the United States 
tiad not only changed the officers of the Government, but 
substituted another ood€ of laws. This entirely changed the 
mode of obtaining titles to lands, or rather stopped their acqui- 
sition from G<3vernment for many years after. 

Under the French and Spanish dominations lands were 
always conveyed by grants and never by sales, and these 
grants were made with certain official formalities which required 
months to accomplish th«m. 

At the time of th« purchase many of th€ grants lacked some 
of the official formalities which made them valid. Congress, 
in 1806, had this under consideration, and appointed three com- 
missioners to examine and confirm them. Hon. John B. C. 
Lucas, Clement B. Penrose and James L. Donaldson were at 
first appointed ; but, in 1807, Frederick Bates was appointed in 
the place of James L. Donaldson. Their duties werei found to 
be laborious, unpleasant and tedious, as most of the formalities 
were imperfect, the grants doubtful and conflicting, and the 
interests involved great. It resulted, after long delay, in Con- 
gress aiding the claimants in perfecting all the grants not 
deemed fraudulent in the inception. 

These imperfect claims had greatly retarded the improve- 



46 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

ment of some of the most valuable lands in the State, and 
deprived owners of the enjoyment of their grants beyond the 
period of their lives. 

The most friendly relations existed between the settlers and 
Indians living south of the Missouri river, while danger was 
apprehended from those residing north of it, as they were sup- 
plied with goods by British traders, and were much under their 
influence. Moreover, their fears had been excited by a report 
made by Mr. Nicholas Jarrot, of Cahokia, under oath, of what 
he had noticed on 28th June, 1809, at Prairie du Chien. Soon 
after a demonstration was made on Fort Madison, Iowa, by the 
Fox Indians, which showed more clearly the hostile designs of 
the Northern Indians. In the month of August, 1809, a party 
of lowas killed several Osages near Liberty, on the north of 
the Missouri. 

The latter attempted to retaliate^ and in their reconnoitering 
excui-sions found the lowas well supplied with new British 
arms and plenty of ammunition, of which the frontier settlers 
were soon made aware by their frequent losses of cattle and 
horses. 

At length, in July, 1810, a party of Indians, supposed to be 
Pottawatomies, came to the settlement of Louti^e Island, near 
the mouth of Grascouade river, and stole several horses. A 
part}' of six persons immediately started in pursuit, consisting 
of Stephen Cooper, Samuel Cole, AVilliam T. Cole and Messrs. 
Brown, Gooch and Patton, \vho, following the Indians across 
the grand prairie to a branch of Salt river, then called Bone- 
lick, discovered them (eight in number) retreating and casting 
away their plunder. Night coming on^ the party encamped 
and slept without a sentinel, and, as should have reasonably 
been expected, were attacked by the savages and half their 
number slain. The Indians also lost four of their number 
killed and wounded, but they kept the property of both parties 
and the field. This ix>used the settlei-s to greater vigilance, and 
made ever^^ person cajiable of bearing arms a soldier and every 
house a fortress for the next five years, and nearly suspended 
all improvements. 

The three Territories of Indiana, Illinois and Louisiana were 
then presided over by three officers of about equal ability. 
Either was very able to lead in battle or preside over a Senate. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 4y 

It seldom happens that three such persons as William Henry 
Harrison, Mnian Edwards and Benjamin Howard are all found 
in the right place so near each other in such an important crisis. 
They were, however, always in place, and they acted as one 
mind and carried all their friends with them. They saw the 
impending danger and prepared to meet it in the best manner, 
and succeeded. General Harrison, who was best known to 
Tecumseh — an ambitious chief and leader among the malcon- 
tent Indians on the east of the Mississippi — had convened a 
council on the 15th of August, 1811, composed of about fifty of 
the most turbulent and restless chiefs, with the view of quieting 
their dissatisfaction or settling their claims. The council was 
abruptly dissolved and hasty preparations made by both par- 
ties for war. The three Governors, acting in unison, aided and 
assisted each other in such a manner that their whole available 
resources were exerted on the point requiring support in this 
crisis. 

On the 7th of November, 1811, Gen. Harrison defeated the 
Indians at Tippecanoe, which quieted them for a time, and 
gave a respite from thefts, raids and murders in all three of 
the Territories until the declaration of war against Great 
Britain, June 19, 18 L2. The watchfulness of the people, how- 
ever, was not in the least abated, for it was known that the 
battle had been fought and lost without the presence or appro- 
bation of their greatest chief, and that Tecumseh would make 
another effort, in person, with the scattered warriors, as soon as 
he could again inspire them with courage and get them united. 

The people of Missouri had scarce heard the tale of the 
battle and rejoiced over the victory when, on the night of the 
16th of December, 1811, they Were aroused from their slumbers 
by an earthquake that shook the whole valley of the Missis- 
sippi, destroyed the town of New Madrid, and filled every 
reasonable creature with consternation and horror. A series 
of shocks followed and vast chasms opened, from whence issued 
columns of water, sand and coal, then closed, and the earth 
rocked to and fro while flashes of electricity gleamed through 
the troubled clouds, rendering the darkness of night more 
terrific. These shocks continued at intervals several weeks, 
lessening in violence, but leaving lasting traces of its ruinous 
effects, such as stagnant lakes and ponds where whole farms 



r 



48 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

and sections had sunk several feet and filled with fetid water,^ 
loathsome to all living creatures. The terrified occupants fied 
from tlie vicinity of their former homes, while hissings and 
rumbling sounds like distant thunder accelerated their fiight 
and discouraged their return. A dense, black cloud of vapor 
hung over the earth and partially hid the sun from view by 
day and rendered night doubly dark and dreary, while the air 
resounded with the cries of wild animals on land and birds on 
wing in search of a more safe and quiet resting place. 

The central point of this remarkable convulsion in nature 
seems to have been near the site of New Madrid, in the south- 
east corner of the State, and slight shocks and undulations 
were frequently felt in that vicinity for half a century after- 
ward. Congress, at a subsequent day, partially remunerated 
the sufi'erers by this appalling phenomenon in grants of public 
lands. 

These grants or certificates were issued at an early period, 
and form the titles to some of the most valuable tracts of land 
in the State. Another remarkable event was coincident with 
this earthquake, and aids in making 1811 a memorable epoch 
among the people of the West. 

Mr. Roosevelt, of New York, during this year, built the first 
steamboat that ever floated on the "Western rivers, at the city 
of Pittsburgh, and named it New Orleans, and navigated it 
safely into the Mississippi, and was lying moored to its shore 
when the vessel was nearly overwhelmed by the agitation of 
the waters and earthquake. It, however, arrived safely at* its 
destination, and opened a new era for Missouri and the West. 
The battle of Tippecanoe, the great earthquake, and the first 
steamboat all occurred in the year 1811, and will be long 
remembered in the Western States. An act of Congress was 
approved June 4th, 1813, which changed the name of the Ter- 
ritory of Louisiana to that of Missouri, and advanced it to the 
second grade of government after the first Monday of Decem- 
ber of that year. Gov. Howard organized the Territory into 
five counties, as it had been in districts before, and by procla- 
mation on the first of October ordered an election to be held 
on the second Monday in November, for a delegate to Con- 
gress and members of a House of Representatives. 

Edward Hempstead was elected delegate to Congress at this 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 49 

session. The House of Representatives commenced their first 
session on the 7th day of December, 1812, and after the organ- 
ization (the oath of oifice being administered by Hon. John B. 
C. Lucas, one of the judges), the House of Representatives 
proceeded to nominate eighteen persons, from whom the Pre- 
sident of the United States, with the Senate, selected nine for 
the council of the Territory, 

The acting governor, Frederick Bates, made proclamation to 
that eftect on the 3d day of June, 1813, and appointed the first 
Monday in July following for the meeting of the general 
assembly. Before the meeting of the legislature, Gen. William 
Clarke, the companion of Captain Lewis on the great exploring 
expedition, had been appointed by President Madison Governor 
of the Territory of Missouri and had entered on the discharge 
of the duties of the office. On the assembling of the legislature 
they passed such laws as were deemed indispensable, such 
as regulating weights and measures, the office and duties of 
sheriff", mode of taking the census, fixing the seats of justice in 
the counties, and their boundaries, the compensation to offi- 
cers, establishing courts, and defining crimes and punish- 
ments, and incorporated the Bank of St. Louis. The territory 
was at that time divided into five counties, viz, : St. Charles, 
St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cape Girardeau and New Madrid. 
At that session a portion of Ste. Genevieve was formed into 
Washington county. General William Clarke, who was well 
acquainted with the Missouri Indians, had immediately after 
the battle of Tippecanoe formed the resolution of collecting 
the prominent chiefs of the influential tribes who inhabited the 
regions of the Missouri, and taking them to Washington City 
and holding a council there with the President, and showing 
them the strength and, as far as possible, the wealth of the 
United States, to counteract the machinations of Tecumseh and 
Ms confederates. 

With the approbation of the President and assistance of all 
the Missouri fur traders, he had collected at St. Louis, early in 
May, 1812, the chiefs of the Grreat and little Osages, the Sacs, 
Renards, Delawares and Shawnees, to accompany him to 
Washington. 

He was the brother of Gen. George Rogers Clarke, the hero 
of the West in the days of the Revolution, and was the com- 



5© HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

peer of Capt. Lewis in the expedition to the source of the Mis- 
souri and Columbia. 

He was feared and beloved by the Indians. He understood 
their character almost by intuition, and could foresee their 
plans and intentions, and was their constant friend and pro- 
tector from the impositions of white men. When they were 
all assembled preparatory to leaving on their long journey, 
their mutual friend advised them to make peace with each 
other, which they accordingly did for themselves and their 
respective people, and all buried the hatchet and left their 
friends at home in peace with all their neighbors. 

On the following day, May the 5tli, 1812, Gen. Clarke 
departed with all the chiefs of those powerful tribes, each pre- 
serving in their features and attire some peculiarity or custom 
of their particular tribe or nation. 

More than half a century has since transpired, and probably 
every person engaged in that embassy of six nations is dead, 
but that act of Gen. Clarke alone should make his name im- 
mortal. Those six nations still exist and have kept their peo- 
ple on terms of friendship with each other to this late day. 
The object of the embassy was fully accomplished. The Indi- 
ans arrived at Washington city several days before the declar- 
ation of war against Great Britain in 1812, and were presented 
to President Madison, who held a council and made a sat- 
isfactory treaty with them, after which they were shown 
through many large cities on their return to St. Louis, and 
escorted to their homes laden with many tokens of esteem and 
confidence, which are still preserved and shown to strangers as 
worthy of veneration and lasting preservation by all lovers of 
peace and friendship. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 5 1 



CHAPTER Y. 

RemarJcahle Performance of Col. Russell Farnum^ a Fur 
Trader of St. Louis, Mo. 

In tlie preceding chapters the brilliant achievements of 
many persons have been described and their biographies par- 
tially given, who, with patriotic zeal, in the moment of excite- 
ment, have stepped forward and jeopardized their lives and all 
they held dear in this world to rescue friends or punish ene- 
mies. It was a reward justly due them for their devotion and 
heroism, nor could a true history of St. Louis have been writ- 
ten without it. 

In this chapter a single character and his family will form 
the theme, as it scarcely has a parallel in faithfulness, courage, 
perseverance and endurance in the annals of the world, and its 
omission here would mar its fulness and blur its most interest- 
ing pages. Col. Russell Farnum, a native of New Hampshire, 
had been a clerk for a time in the employment of John Jacob 
Astor, of New York, and was dispatched by him to visit his 
employes and agents in the Indian country of the West, and, 
with the aid of the late Wilson P. Hunt, to transact business 
as his agent, as his business and interests required. Farnum 
soon became well known in St. Louis, and at the commence- 
rnent of the war of 1812 with Great Britain was on 'a business 
excursion in the Indian country near the Lake of the Woods. 

Having finished his business in that distant region, and the 
leaves of autumn admonishing the near approach of winter, he 
essayed a return to St. Louis for winter quarters by the most 
feasible route at that time, and struck boldly across the forest 
from the lake toward the Missisippi at Prairie du Cliien. 

When he had reached the river, having heard nothing of the 
declaration of war, he saw a smoke at a distance and hastened 
to it. On his arrival at it he was immediately arrested by 
one of the wiseacres of that day, in the dress of a United offi- 
cer in command of a barge and party of United States soldiers, 
and confined under close guard as a British spy until he 
arrived at St. Louis, where he was surrounded by a crowd of 
old friends who hurried him from the boat to his quarters 
before the officer could make his boat fast. 



52 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

The officer was so mortified at this reception of his prisoner, 
and his own ill treatment of him while a prisoner — having 
seized on his journal — that he dared not show his face before 
him, but took his journal to the door of his lodgings and sent 
it in to him by one of the little daughters of Ham whom he met 
near the door of his lodgings. His stay in St. Louis was very 
brief. After consultation with his friends, Mr, Hunt and Gen. 
Clarke, Col. Farnum started alone with his dog and gun up the 
Missouri river to bear messages to the trading stations at and 
around Astoria, on the Pacific coast. The exact date of his 
departure and arrival at the different points of his long jour- 
ney were carefully noted bv him, as well as the remarkable 
incidents and observations on the route, in a well kept journal, 
prepared for publication, and was placed in the hands of a 
publisher in New York, who failed and died several years 
before Col. Farnum, and he was never after able to recover the 
journal or learn its fate. 

His biographer is, therefore, obliged to rely on tradition, his 
own knowledge and the public journals of those days for the 
approximate dates and periods. Col, Farnum pursued the 
route traveled by Lewis and Clarke as much as possible, after 
passing the settlements, the last of v/hich were near Boonville, 
on the Missouri river. His whole outfit, documents and 
blanket, except his gun, weighed less than twenty pounds, 
while he was a stout, athletic man, five feet ten inches high, of 
florid complexion, blue eyes and fair hair, of a happy and 
jovial disposition, and commanding countenance. 

He had always been very temperate and healthy, and his 
long journey before him was not to subject him to labors to 
which he was a stranger or a diet to which he was not used. 
Game was plentiful ; he was in his element ; saw no ene- 
mies, for his t rained dog would give notice of their presence 
in time to avoid them. He, therefore, traveled rapidly, with- 
out detention and without fear. The hostile Blackfeet Indi- 
ans lay in his route ; but h^ slep ^ by day and ti'aveled by 
night through their country, and passed unmolested and unob- 
served. 

Obstacles now that no darkness could hide or foresight avoid 
presented a feature calculated to appal the bravest heart. The 
winter had set in ; the earth covered with snow and the rivers 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



53 



witli ice, while every track made by the traveler was visible to 
a roving enemy, whether man or beast; no succor near or 
sympathizer to soothe but his faithful dog ; yet he pressed on- 
ward with speed. Every step took him further from friends 
and increased the ruggedness of his journey. His gun his 
only reliance for food for himself and companion ; the caves 
and cliffs his only bed chamber by night and protection from 
storms and tempests by day. His costume corresponded with 
the length of his journey and the rudeness of his mode of life. 
A fur cap, a buckskin suit, with leggins and moccasins, formed 
his whole apparel, which was so similiar to an Indian's 
appearance at a distance that even the wild beasts allowed 
him passage without notice, and crossed his course within a 
few yards of him as one of their familiar sights. 

His course was on the ice where the waters were frozen, and 
along the banks when open, as in the bluffs along nearly 
the whole course of the Missouri were found caves, recesses 
and overhanging rocks that afforded him shelter for the long, 
cold nights, and protection from the storms of a long, cold and 
temj)estuous winter. The elks, black-tailed deer and mountain 
sheep roved in sufficient numbers, gnawing the moss from the 
rocks, to afford abundant food without the least trouble in 
searching for it, even in the snow storms of a week's duration 
by which he was detained. 

Having at length overcome the great barrier between the 
oceans, he reached the waters of the Columbia, and leaving 
the inbound rivers behind, meditated taking a more easy and 
speedy mode of traveling to complete his journey. But while 
he sat on a log near the river, meditating the best means of 
accomplishing his object, his dog, lying at a little distance, 
jumped uj), and running between his legs, manifested great 
alarm, when Col. Farnum, turning his eyes to the river, saw 
five canoes filled with Indians glide by like an arrow. Their 
hostile appearance, perfect outfit and celerity in motion at 
once determined him to pursue his journey in the same safe 
and humble manner in which he had performed the most diffi- 
cult and dangerous part of it in safety, and, in pursuance of 
this resolution, he reached Astoria in perfect health, and deliv- 
ered his dispatches in safety. When Col. Farnum had suffi- 
ciently recuperated to justify a further effort, he undertook the 



54 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

overland journey to St. Petersburgh, in Russia, and taking 
with him documents for the Hudson Bay Company, he walked 
up the Paciiic coast to Kamskatka, still carrjdng his gun and 
accompanied by his dog, and arrived at the Behrings Strait in 
the winter of 1813-14, when it was frozen, and crossed it on 
the ice. 

Then entering Siberia, he proceeded across the eastern conti- 
nent to St. Petersburg, where, introducing himself to the 
American Plenipotentiary at the Russian Court, he was pre- 
sented to the Emperor Alexander, as the bold American who 
had traveled by land across both continents. He was received 
by the Emperor with great consideration and kindness, and 
was sent by him, without soliciation, to Paris, on his way 
homeward, at which he arrived in good health, after such great 
exposure to dangers, toils and sufferings, alone, as no other 
individual has ever voluntarily submitted himself to on these 
two continents. On his appearance on the streets of St. Louis 
he was every where hailed with the warmest salutations of joy, 
pleasure and admiration in the countenances of all who had 
ever known him or heard of his extraordinary exploits. These 
demonstrations were received with that modesty and humility 
which always characterize true greatness, and adds a never 
failing charm to the whole character of him who possesses it. 

The close of the war with Great Britain, just at the period 
of his return, afforded him an opportunity to resume his occu- 
pation as a fur trader, as he left it in the year 1812, which he 
embraced, and continued in honor and quietude to the end of 
his earthly career. 

In 1830, Col. Farnum married the second daughter of Mr. 
Charles Bosseron, who survived him but a few years, by whom 
he left an infant son, named Charles. 

Col. Farnum was attacked with cholera while on business at 
Rock Island, in 1832, but soon recovered and returned to St. 
Louis, where he died very suddenly soon after of the same 
disease. His only son, Charles, survived his father about 
eighteen years, and died of a pulmonary disease, leaving no 
one to inherit his father's name and fame, or enjoy his estate, 
but his aged maternal grandmother. 

Thus passed away, in the morning of its day, one of the 
most promising families of St. Louis, surrounded with every 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 55 

blessing that could make life desirable, and with talents quali- 
fying them to occupy a high place in the sphere of excellence 
and usefulness in the society in which they dwelt. 

Disappointment and death, however, frustrated the labors of 
his life. First, the proposed publisher of his journal of travels 
failed and then died, by which it was lost. Then the derange- 
ment of the fur trade consequent upon the British war called 
for his whole attention in that direction for fifteen years after. 
T^ext, his marriage and domestic affairs left him no time to re- 
write, with care and accuracy, his own journal, and an inper- 
fect work would never suit his taste. 

His sudden death, therefore, has only left his friends to 
collect and publish the reminiscences of his extraordinary and 
wonderful journeys and the labors of his active life, without 
the aid of family connections, memoranda or data (except the 
public journals of the day) of any kind. 



CHAPTER YI. 



Reminiscences of Manuel Liza, a Spaniard, and Ids devotion 
to the United States in the War of 1812 — The first BanTc in 
St. Louis — Duel hetween Colonel Thomas H. Benton and 
Charles Lucas, Esq., and the result — The first Briclc House 
in St. Louis — Missouri becomes a State of the Federal 
Union — The first Iron Foundry in St. Louis. 

The last short chapter, although confined chiefly to the history 
of a single individual, furnishes a fair sample of what Avas daily 
being transacted at many places by a large number of the 
most enterprising people engaged in the fur trade on the waters 
of the Missouri. The most remarkable and enterprising among 
those who had chosen St. Louis for a residence was Manuel 
Liza, a Spaniard by birth, but long a sojourner* and trader 
among the Indians on the Missouri. His known popularity 
among the Indians induced Gen. Clark to appoint him a sub- 
agent among the Indians of the Missouri in 1814, while the 
war against Great Britain and the Indians of the Great Lakes 



56 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

and Mississippi was in progress. He accepted the appoint- 
ment, and taking a supply of suitable merchandise for the pur- 
pose, furnished by the United States, distributed them among 
the Indians of the Missouri, and engaged them in offensive 
operations against the enemies of the United States. His 
trading posts extended at that time twelve hundred miles up 
the Missouri river, therefore he could select those best qualified 
for that service, and accordingly made choice of the Yanktons 
and Omahas for that purpose, and distributed the goods among 
them. The Omahas lost no time in delay, but made a successful 
raid on the hostile lowas, allies of the enemy, took several of 
their scalps and sent them to St. Louis, in the month of Febru- 
ary, 1815, before the nevrs of peace had reached them. In the 
meantime, Mr. Liza had collected nine hundred Yanktons at 
the mouth of the Kio Jacques, who also attacked the lowas, 
took twenty-seven of their scalps and were preparing to drive 
the whole tribe from the lands of their fathers, the last chastise- 
ment of a native among Indians, vs^hen the news of peace was 
received, and a request from Gen. Howard to bring down forty- 
seven of tlie warrior chiefs to St. Louis. This he accomplished 
with ease, as his character among Indians was held in the 
highest estimation, and his counsels followed. His j)osition 
and influence brought upon him the envy and opposition of 
those in the same business, who attacked him in the public 
journals and vexed him into a resignation after he had filled 
the office three years with the most consummate skill and per- 
fect satisfaction to the Indian Department. His active and 
eventful life, his palatial residence of that day, his remarkable 
Indian acquaintance and his popularity, his two marriages, his 
very extensive fur trading establishment, and his character for 
probity and honor point him out as one of the great builders 
of the fame of St. Louis, and furnish suitable excuse for giving 
his name and actions a place in its history, as he left no sons 
or near relatives to inherit his fame or his name, and half a 
century has nearly obliterated the memory of his competitors 
and traducers of that day. The close of the war had opened 
a greater competition among the Missouri fur traders, and new 
parties had come into the field to participate in it, so that on 
the death of Mr. Liza no considerable vacuum occurred in the 
trade, notwithstanding his death and absence from the vast 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



57 



field of liis labors. The labors of tlie trade were gradually 
undergoing a change. Hunters and trappers were to be em- 
ployed as well as clerks, traps and toils, as well as goods 
credited to the Indians, and all transported to greater distances, 
as the game and Indians both gradually retired before the 
advance of civilization, which was making advances into the 
wilderness with most gigantic strides. Such was the state of 
the far trade in the regions of the Missouri for many years 
after the British war — even to this day. The new adventurers 
who came into Missouri as the fur trade receded, brought for- 
ward new schemes of finance, and, engaging the old, experi- 
enced traders and substantial citizens of the village in the 
enterprise, on the 21st day of August, 1816, obtained a charter 
for a bank from the Territorial Legislature, to be located in 
St. Louis, by the name of the St. Louis Bank. On the 2d of 
September, 1816, thirteen directors were elected, who chose 
Colonel Samuel Hammond, President, and John G-. B. Smith, 
Cashier, and the bank soon went into operation. The little 
town felt new life. The current of business swelled in volume 
and increased in velocity from the flood of money. The people, 
elated by this new apparent progress in the road to wealtli, on 
the first of February, 1817, obtained another charter for a bank, 
with a capital of $250,000, called the Bank of Missouri, which 
was soon after made the depository of the monej^ of the United 
States, Auguste Chouteau being chosen President, and Lilburn 
W. Boggs, Cashier, of the elected directory. 

The tide of business was thus inflated by the flood of money 
to an excessive magnitude and extravagance encouraged, while 
speculation, encouraged by banking facilities, jeopardized 
everything by the momentum it gave to all financial trans- 
actions. Immigration flowed into the Territory from all the 
States in a most rapid current, attracted hither by three great 
objects — the speedy acquisition of wealth, good lands at low 
prices, and large tracts for hemp and tobacco plantations, to be 
cultivated by slaves. When all these were at the zenith of 
action the United States held sales of the public lands for the 
first time in Missouri, at which great numbers of sj)eculators 
congregate and added to the general enthusiasm and scramble 
for wealtli. and power. 

In this glittering season irresponsible and reckless persons 
5 



58 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

obtained credit of the banks and soon involved them in insol- 
vency, and many of the officers in disgrace and ruin. In this 
season of hope and folly many enterprises were undertaken 
and much labor and funds expended on edifices in the city of 
St. Louis which were never completed. Such were two brick 
church buildings on Market street — one a Catholic church near 
the southwest corner of Second and Market streets, one hundred 
and thirty feet long, and the other a Baptist church, at the 
southwest corner of Third and Market streets. Both were 
inclosed and used many years b}^ those who erected them, and 
finally demolished before they were finished. Also the founda- 
tion of a large theater was laid on the south side of Chesnut 
street, between Second and Third streets, where the Police 
Court is now held, which was never used. This financial crash 
and disappointment was not confined to the people of St. Louis 
and Missouri. The whole United States sufi*ered alike at the 
period. Insolvency was a term well understood out of Missouri 
as well as in it. Her exports were only lead, furs and peltries 
up to that time, and were but little affected in price by the 
general stagnation and crash. The great drain on Missouri 
was through the land ofiices to pay for homesteads at two dol- 
lars per acre which are now donated to all actual settlers. 
That was a sad burden, then and has been one of the great 
unacknowledged errors of our departed rulers. The overtask- 
ing early settlers of Western States has been more felt in the 
payments for homesteads than in taxation for all other pur- 
poses and the burden of military service in all tlie wars. 
Speculators have been tolerated and encouraged, while the 
toiling settlers have opened the roads, built the bridges, fought 
the battles and paid the taxes. Speculators' lands were always 
exempt by law five years. Money appearing very plentiful in 
St. Louis in the spring of 1817, many persons essayed to pro- 
vide tliemselves with more comfortable residences tlian they 
had enjoyed before, and many new buildings were erected and 
occupied during this year, which seemed one of unusual pros- 
perity. The year, however, was marked by an occurrence 
which created much excitement at the time by its tragical 
termination, and requires to be noted by the historian, as it 
occurred between two distinguished individuals, who each 
occupied the front rank of the two political parties of that day. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 59 

Mr. Charles Lucas, then United States Attorney for the Terri- 
tory of Missouri, and Colonel Thomas H. Benton, afterwards 
United States Senator for thirty consecutive years, were engaged 
in the trial of a cause in court on opposite sides, and, forgetting 
the dignity of the court and the kindness and courtesy due to 
their brother members of the same honorable profession, in 
their zeal for their respective clients, used harsh and reproach- 
ful language to each other. Colonel Benton, considering him- 
self insulted by Mr. Lucas, sent a challenge which Mr. Lucas 
declined to accept on the basis that he was not to be held 
accountable for words spoken in professional debate. At a 
political meeting held soon after, the same gentlemen became 
much excited in the discussion of some controversy, and Mr. 
Lucas sent a challenge to Colonel Benton, which he accepted. 
On the 12th of August a meeting took place on Bloody Island, 
now a part of East St. Louis, to decide their difference with 
pistols, in which Mr. Lucas received a severe wound in the 
neck and was withdrawn from the field by his surgeon. At a 
subsequent meeting of the same parties, on the 27th of Sep- 
tember, 1817, Mr. Lucas fell, aged twenty-five years, deeply 
lamented by a vast number of admiring friends and near 
relatives. 

In the eagerness to raise capital even for praiseworthy 
objects in the maniacal year 1817, recourse was had to legisla- 
tive authority to authorize lotteries, and so blind to wise policy 
and good morals was the legislative assembly at that time 
that they granted authority for three lotteries — one to create 
a fund to build an academy at Potosi ; one to purchase fire 
engines for the town of St. Louis ; and one for the erection 
of a Masonic Hall. 

And, strange as it may appear in this enlightened age, while 
we are paying enormous sums for public schools, jails and 
penitentiaries, our legislature continues this sad reproach on 
the wisdom and morals of our rulers, and our streets are yet 
dishonored by the signs of Missouri State Lottery offices. 
Notwithstanding this blindness and folly in legislation, the 
same legislature incorporated the board of trustees for super- 
intending the St. Louis public schools, which was the com- 
mencement of the public school sj^stem which is in operation 
at this day, and is the most noble and praiseworthy institution 



6o HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

St. Louis has to transmit to posterity. The selection of trus- 
tees for that important station gave it the high character as a 
hoard that it has ever since maintained, and showed that they 
had the interest of posterity in full view. They were Gen. 
William Clarke, William C. Carr, Thomas H. Benton, Ber- 
nard Pratte, Auguste Chouteau, Alexander McNair and John 
P. Cabanne. The high character of all these gentlemen and 
the important trust conferred on them by the legislature, 
together with the necessity of public schools in all communi- 
ties, induced the belief that the public schools would then soon 
be opened by the board. A cruel disappointment, however, 
followed, and no public school was opened for twent}^ years 
afterwards for the education of the innumerable idle children of 
St. Louis. The census of the United States in 1810 gave 20,845 
of all classes to Missouri, and in 1820 it gave 66,586. The 
first brick dwelling house in St. Louis was erected by William 
C. Carr, in 1813, and from that period all seemed to perceive 
that brick walls would be most suitable for all edifices to be 
erected on the site chosen for the city. More than half a cen- 
tury has now passed, and nine-tenths of the chief material of 
which they are manufactured is very abundant in and about 
St. Louis, of an excellent quality. The manufacture of brick, 
from its first introduction as a building material into St. Louis 
to the present time, has kept a more even pace with the 
growth of its population than the manufacture of any other 
article. None have ever been imported into the city or 
exported from it. They have alwaj^s commanded a fair but 
never an exorbitant price, and from the abundance and excel- 
lence of the materials of which they are made in the vicinity, 
or near easy transportation to the city, there can be no doubt 
that St. Louis will always have the appearance of a city built 
chiefiy of brick, however large may be its circumference. 
Grey limestone abounds in and about the vicinity of the city of 
an excellent quality, and large quantities of lime are exported 
from it to other places. The expense of building in St. Louis 
and its vicinity has been greater than in most other cities, in 
consequence of the high price of pine lumber, there being no 
pine forests within fifty miles of the city. Rents have, there- 
fore, been higher, and it has retarded the manufacturing inter- 
est more than any other cause. During the exuberance of 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 6 I 

money in 1817, in the general scramble to acquire wealth, 
some learned, staid and scientific persons of other parts of 
the Union came to St. Lonis and other parts of Missouri and 
essayed with the capital they brought with them to become 
opulent farmers, planters and landholders, and although they 
exercised industry, sobriety and prudence, failed by lack of 
patience, fortitude and perseverance. 

One instance is but the example of many in Missouri about 
that time, and is given to contrast with some who patiently 
waited for the growth of the little town, and now bask on the 
bosom of wealth and behold the rising glory of St. Louis, sur- 
rounded by their families and friends who have assisted in 
extending its limits and enjoying its fruition. Col. Justus Post 
was, in 1817, one of the best informed and wealthiest citizens 
of the territory, had been educated at West Point, was a pro- 
found practical mathematician, and had served with credit in 
the United States army during the war of 1812 against Great 
Britain. He was possessed of an estate of one hundred thou- 
sand dollars, mostly cash, purchased large tracts of land, built 
a country residence and a mill in Bonhomme townshijD, made 
other improvements and gave embellishment to the country 
and life to business about him. The stockholders of the Mis- 
souri Bank elected him a director in it and thereby involved 
Mm in an element he had but imperfectly studied. In extri- 
cating himself from its meshes he became impatient, discour- 
aged and desirous of change in his location, and as the people 
of Illinois wished to employ a competent engineer to examine 
a route for the Michigan canal, he engaged himself to them, 
performed the task satisfactorily, left Missouri and settled in 
the little town called America, in Illinois, engaged again in 
milling and died poor, having disposed of his large land estate 
in St. Louis county for a triiie when he left, which, if held to 
his death, would have left his two sons millionaires. 

The growth of, St. Louis and the influx of emigrants to the 
territory during the year 1817 elated the whole population and 
urged them to attempt many projects in imitation of the more 
advanced society of older places. A Bible society was formed 
by the more prominent of the Protestant members of society, 
which was called the Missouri Auxiliary Bible Society, and 
continued to exist for many years. In the year 1818, Missouri 



62 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

applied for admission into the Union, having all the constitu- 
tional requisites for admission. The slavery question had 
begun to be agitated the year before in some of the Eastern 
States, and at once became a theme of great interest in all the 
States as soon as the application was made to Congress. The 
people of Missouri took a lively interest in the impending 
question and were much divided on the subject, but the pre- 
ponderance was somewhat in favor of slavery. 

The agitation was very exciting in Missouri and both in and 
out of Congress. Both parties became so much excited that 
the peace of the country was much endangered and the pro- 
gress of improvement much impeded. This, with the failure of 
the St. Louis banks and the suspension of specie payments by 
the banks of most of the States, produced a stagnation in 
almost all kinds of business. Confidence among men of busi- 
ness was greatly impaired, the courts thronged with creditors 
striving to collect what might save themselves from impending 
ruin, the bulletin-boards of the court house were covered with 
advertisements of sheriff's sales, and the streets filled with idle 
men out of employment. Such was the condition of St. Louis 
in the days of the fierce agitation of the Missouri question. 
Emigration to the State was nearly suspended, while lands 
depreciated in value until tliey were scarcely saleable. 

At length the Missouri Compromise, as it was called, was 
effected, and Missouri entered the Union, but with the incubus 
of slavery upon her, and with the certain prospect of being 
surrounded on three sides by free States, to tease and endan- 
ger the ownei*s of slave property so much that they were held 
in lower estimation in Missouri than in any other State. The 
progress of improvement was thereby greatly impeded, and 
the public mind agitated by the threatening aspect of sur- 
rounding objects. Moreover, there was a large party at the 
formation of the Constitution who were oj^posed to its becom- 
ing a slave State, and very reluctantly submitted to the evils 
of slavery brought upon them, one of which was the deprecia- 
tion in the price of real estate, by stopping emigration from 
the Northern States to it. The improvement in navigation by 
steamboat had now come to be known and appreciated, but 
its progress was very slow in consequence of the timidity of 
St. Louis capitalists to invest in steamboats. When Missouri 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 63 

was admitted into the Union there was no steamhoat owned in 
the State, and bat one steam mill ; consequently other States 
enjoyed the carrying trade, which had become large and lucra- 
tive on the Mississippi, below St. Louis. The transportation 
above the town was still continued in barges, as in former 
times. The town was governed by a board of five Trustees, 
elected annually by the people, who appointed a register to 
write out their ordinances and see that they were enforced. 
They also appointed an assessor and an inspector of lumber. 
These constituted the officers of the corporation, and per- 
formed all the business. The assessed amount of taxable 
property was less than one million of dollars, and the whole 
corporation tax less than four thousand dollars per annum, 
while Missouri remained a territory. 

The boundary of the taxable portion of the Territory, under 
the corporation of 1809 (when it was formed), began at the 
mouth of Mill Creek, near the site of the gas works, thence up 
the creek westwardly to about Seventh street, thence north- 
wardly with Seventh street to Green street, thence on the north 
line of Green street to the middle of the Mississipj^i, thence 
southwardly by the river to the place of beginning, having 
seven streets parallel with the river. The streets were very 
limited in breadth, as first surveyed by the French and Span- 
ish authorities, as the town was to be fortified. Therefore, all 
the streets that were laid off within the old fortifications, that 
is east of Fourth street, are still narrow, while all west of 
Third street are much broader, being sixty or eighty feet wide. 
The cross streets within the old fortifications are similar to the 
parallel streets, being scarcely forty feet wide, while those out- 
side of Fourth street are broad and convenient. The blocks 
thus formed were larger in the older part of the town than the 
new, by the difference in the breadth of the streets, and were 
about three hundred feet square in the original survey. At 
the time of the adoption of the constitution of the State — 1820 
— which may be assumed as an epoch (although it was not 
admitted into the Union until the next year), the town con- 
tained six hundred houses, one-third of which were of stone or 
brick, the remainder wooden, one-half of which were framed. 
The population was estimated at 5,000, one fourth of whom 
were French families, the remainder mostly emigrants from 



64 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI, 

tlie otlier United States and foreigners from all parts of Europe. 
The fur companies were extending their establishments still 
further up the Missouri river and its branches, although all 
other business was exceedingly dull, by reason of the failure 
of the banks. The estimated annual value of the trade was 
$600,000. 

The failure of the banks and the oppression of debtors by 
their creditors induced the Legislature at its first session to 
enact a stay-law for the relief of debtors, which protected their 
property from distraint for two years and a half, and also 
established a sj^stem of loan offices, and issued a pajDer cur- 
rency that soon lost the public confidence and became of little 
benefit to the public when it did answer the purpose of cancel- 
ing debts or purchasing property, as it was of very uncertain 
value by reason of speculators depreciating its value that they 
might purchase it for a small consideration. Notwithstanding 
these disadvantages, the town and State advanced in popula- 
tion and wealth. Two ferries with boats, propelled by horse- 
power, became necessary to accommodate the emigrants and 
traveling public at St. Ix)uis. 

Steamboats from the Ohio river assumed the carrying trade 
of that river, and from New Orleans to St. Louis, so that keel- 
boating was nearly discontinued on the streams below the 
town, and the amval and departure of a steamboat became a 
common occurence. The imports were estimated at one mil- 
lion of dollars in 1820, as but few articles, and those of the 
most simple kind, had as yet been manufactured in the State ; 
the balance of trade was therefore much against the new State, 
which was without capitalists or credit. There was, however, 
no lack of enterprise among the people ; and among those of 
that early day who should be remembered as one of St. Louis' 
early benefactor was Lewis Newell, a blacksmith, who estab- 
lished the first foundry of iron in the city of St. Louis in 1824, 
and operated it in connection with his own trade, and then 
added the manufacturing of plows to his extensive establish- 
ment, assisted by Mr. Schroeder, who still manufactures plows 
on Second street, near the old site of Newell's foundry. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 65 



CHAPTER YII. 

TTie Incorporation of tlie town of St. Louis ty tTie Legisla- 
ture, with a Charter for a City — TTie Expedition of Gen. 
William H. Ashley to the Rocky Mountains., and his Defeat 
ty Auricaree Indians on t?te Ilissouri — Duel hetween Thos. 
C. Rector and Joshua Barton., in which the latter was Tcilled. 

The gradual disappearance of depreciated paper money from 
commercial circles and returning prosperity through industrial 
pursuits had begim to show itself early in the spring of 1822. 
Specie had taken the place of paper in nearly all commercial 
transactions, and consisted almost exclusively of silver coin, 
mostly Spanish or Mexican dollars. The exports being very 
limited, most of it had been brought and put in circulation by 
emigrants, as no amount of payments were then made in 
American gold, in consequence of the United States golden 
dollar being more valuable than a silver one by several cents, 
which gave rise to Senator Benton's gold Mil, so celebrated at 
a later day throughout the United States. 

The stay law in the meantime had the effect to prevent great 
sacrifices of property by sheriff's sales, and many compromises 
were made during the stay that greatly relieved the debtors in 
many instances. Still, however, the courts were crowded with 
creditors pressing their claims into judgment for future action 
on the termination of the stay law. Agriculture had begun to 
receive greater attention as the population increased, many of 
the emigrants from the Southern States having brought their 
slaves to Missouri with the design of cultivating tobacco and 
hemp. 

An agricultural society was formed in May of this year, and 
embraced among its distinguished members, Hon. Wm. C. Carr, 
Major Richard Graham, I)r. Robert Simpson, Colonel Joseph 
C. Brown, and others. It did much for the advancement of 
agriculture for many years. 

The Legislature of Missouri, on the 9th day of December, 
1822, passed an act to incorporate the inhabitants of the town 
of St. Louis into the city of St. Louis, and vested the corporate 
powers in a Mayor and nine Aldermen. The town of St. Louis 



66 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

tlien contained 4,800 inliabitants. On the first Monday in 
April, 1823, an election was held for a Mayor and nine Alder- 
men, which resulted as follows : 

Dr. Wm. Carr Lane was elected Mayor, and Thos. McKnight, 
James Kennerly, Philip Rocheblane, Archibald Gamble, Wm. 
H. Savage, Robert Nash, James Loper, Henry Von Phul and 
James Lackman, were elected Aldermen. 

These oflicers were gentlemen of the first respectability, and 
entered on the discharge of their duties with the entire confi- 
dence of the people in their integrity and ability. 

The city was divided into three wards, the northern, the 
southern and the middle, and preparations made to improve 
the city. Some attempts had previously been made to pave 
some of the streets, but the designs had not been accom- 
plished as originally contemplated, and were then suspended. 
The new government, immediately after its organization, caused 
its engineer to submit a plan for the grading and paving of the 
city, and, as contemplated, he commenced Ms labors at the 
most important point in it, and submitted a grade for Main 
street, from near the Iron Mountain Depot on the south, to the 
intersection of Green street on the north. 

This grade was adopted by ordinance, and the grading and 
paving between Market and Walnut streets completed in the 
autumn of that year. 

The grading was done at the cost of the city, but the paving 
and curbing was done at the cost of the owners of lots fronting 
on the streets paved. This was the cause of many of the 
owners of large lots dividing and selling them and thus afford- 
ing an opportunity for the improvement of the city in its central 
parts where the town had long been disfigured or hidden by 
rustic and nearly useless inclosures to gratify the whim of some 
antiquated occupant in possession. 

While these operations were in progress, and improvements 
advancing apace in all parts of the State, the veterans in the 
fur trade were not idle, but forming new schemes and making 
new eflbrts to extend their traffic and establishments further 
into the regions of the West. 

Among all those who have distinguished themselves by their 
enterprise, perseverance and success no one has excelled the 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 67 

late Gen. William H. Ashley, the intrepid leader and head of 
the Rocky Mountain Fur Company of St. Louis. 

He it was who discovered the great Southern pass of that 
mighty barrier, the Rocky Mountains, and published to the 
world the extent and productions of those distant and unex- 
plored solitudes, whicli, by their vastness and minerals, attract 
the cupidity of millions at this time. 

It may at first view apjDear a digression from our history to 
mention him, but any part of his history is a part of the his- 
tory of St. Louis and Missouri, and can not be omitted in their 
history. Early in the spring of this year Gen. Ashley equipped 
two boats of suitable capacity and strength to ascend the Mis- 
souri river to the mouth of the Yellowstone river, and with the 
assistance of Maj or Henry, an experienced fur trader, engaged 
one hundred men to accompany and navigate the two boats 
and perform such other service as is usually required of men 
in the service of fur companies engaged in trade with the 
Indians. 

These were mostly Missourians, long experienced in the 
hardships of trading expeditions on the Missouri among the 
Indians, and many were natives of St. Louis. 

The Rocky Mountain Fur Company had provided a com- 
plete assortment of Indian goods for an extensive and lucrative 
traffic, and no expedition of the same size could then have been 
better furnished in St. Louis. The goods and most of the men 
being embarked as early as the season would permit, the two 
boats left the town amid hilarity and expressions of good will 
and wishes from many mouths. Alas! how mutable are 
human affairs, and how subject our fondest hopes to be frus- 
trated! No want of prudence, foresight or sagacity on the 
part of Gen. Ashley was ever imputed to him in the disasters 
and disappointments he sustained within the next three months, 
by which he lost more than one-fourth of his men by violent 
deaths, and one half of his property by accident, deceit or war. 
First, a cart-load of rifle powder on its way to the boats at St. 
Charles exploded on Washington avenue, near where the St. 
Louis University now stands, and killed two of his men and 
Mr. LaBarge, owner and driver of the cart. 

Next, the chiefs of the Auricaree Indians, by deceit, obtained 
a valuable lot of presents for their friendship, after which they 



68 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

sold him fifty horses and obtained full payment ; and to com- 
plete their perfidy attacked his men on the very ground ap- 
pointed for the delivery of the horses and killed fifteen of his 
men, wounded others, shot, wounded and dispersed the horses, 
and closed their villainy by driving his boats from their 
anchorage down the river, and efiectually blockaded the stream 
against him. 

While these disasters were occurring in his immediate pres- 
ence, a party of eleven of his men was attacked near the 
mouth of the Yellowstone river, whither he had sent Major 
Henry by land with a small detachment, and four more of his 
most efficient men were slain and the whole property in their 
charge taken from them by the Blackfoot Indians. 

This series of misfortunes, that would have appalled and 
quite discouraged other men, had no perceptible effect on the 
countenance or energy of Gen. Ashley. His mild, peaceful and 
grave countenance underwent no change, nor his plans or pur- 
poses any alteration. 

He bided his time for action with the quietude and patience 
of a cat waiting for the appearance of its prey, and was re- 
warded for his silence in much the same manner. 

The traders of the Hudson Bay Fur Company had prompted 
these raids on his property, and when the United States army 
had chastised the Auricarees and dissolved the blockade of the 
Missouri river, he proceeded to his establishment at the mouth of 
the Yellowstone, and, securing his boats and other property from 
the danger of further depredations, went immediately in pursuit 
of his plundered property among the Hudson Bay Fur Company 
traders and their Indian dupes whom enticed into these murders 
and maraudings. His promptitude was rewarded with complete 
success ; and, while in pursuit of a squad of trans-mountain 
Indians, he was led into the gateway of the great Southern 
Pass, and the direct road to the fruition of all his hopes for 
wealth, honor and rewards — for all his patient labors, exposures, 
meditations, watchings, disappointments and waitings among 
the mutations and dangers of his adventurous life. Having 
secured complete success for himself and partners, he quietly 
and almost unnoticed returned to St. Louis and purchased a 
beautiful site for a residence near the Old Reservoir, and ex- 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 69 

pended a portion of liis hard-earned wealth in building up and 
beautifying the city and his tranquil home. 

The smooth stream of human affairs is sometimes very sud- 
denly disturbed by very small and unlooked for circumstances, 
and society shocked and excited by its action and consequences. 
Such an occurrence transpired in St. Louis in June of this year. 
Gen. William Rector, United States Surveyor of Illinois, Mis- 
souri and Arkansas, was absent from the city in Washington 
City, on official business connected with his office, when an 
article appeared in the Missouri Republican charging him with 
corruption in office. It was a charge too serious to be over- 
looked. His brother, Thomas C. Rector, immediately called on 
the editor for the name of the author. The editor gave the 
name of Joshua Barton, Esq., United States District Attorney 
and brother of Hon. David Barton, United States Senator of 
Missouri, as the author. Mr. Rector and Mr. Barton were gen- 
tlemen of high respectability. The code of honor that obtained 
in the West at that time could not be misunderstood or evaded. 
Mr. Rector challenged Mr. Barton, who accepted the challenge, 
and they met on Bloody Island, June 30, 1828. Mr. Barton fell 
at the first fire, and died lamented by a large number of 
admiring friends. 

The public excitement from the bloody incidents on the Mis- 
souri and in St. Louis already related had begun to be quieted 
and hopes of more peaceful times to attend its distant citizens 
engaged in the lucrative and extended Western fur trade, 
when the public ear was again shocked by the recital of new 
atrocities committed by the Indians of Upper Missouri on the 
citizens of St. Louis, by which several prominent persons lost 
their lives and others their property. 

The Missouri Fur Company was one of the strongest and 
most active companies engaged in the trade, and had Dr. Pil- 
cher, a most distinguished Indian fur trader, at its head, Maj. 
Benj. O'Fallon was one of the principal partners and at the 
same time one of the most efficient United States agents for 
Indian Affairs. Dr. Pilcher, however, had the whole manage- 
ment of the company's affairs. In conducting its affairs he 
engaged two of the most expert and experienced men of that 
day to assist him, named Jones and Jemmell. 

These two gentlemen were sent forward by Dr. Pilcher in 



70 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

command of a party carrying fifteen thousand dollars ■n'ortli of 
goods to tlie company's store-house near the mouth of the Yel- 
lowstone river, and, when near the end of their journey, they 
were attacked in a dehle by about four hundred Blackfoot 
Indians, and both the leaders and five others of the party 
slain and all the property taken. Each of the leaders made a 
desperate defense and were cut to j)ieces. Jones killed two 
Indians, and Jemmell one before they perished. These mur- 
ders were afterwards avenged, which was but a lean and un- 
satisfactory consolation to bereaved relatives, friends and 
plundered merchants. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

TTie First Female Cliaritable Society Formed in St. Louis — 
Return of Gen. Asliley, Successful, from tTie Roclcy Moun- 
tains — Election of Hon. Fredericli Bates, Governor, and Ms 
Early Death. 

Gov, Alexander Mc]N"air's term of office was now drawing to 
a close in 1824. It had been an entire success, and he retired 
from its duties with the gratifying consciousness that his 
entire administration had given satisfaction to the people in 
all parts of the State, and his example was worthy of imita- 
tion. Indeed, his official career was always a success in all 
stations. He had filled many offices, both civil and military, 
in the Territorial, State and Indian departments with credit to 
himself and satisfaction to the public. He owed but little to 
scientific training or brilliant abilities, but he possessed a 
sound judgment, an honest heart and patriotic purpose, from 
which no allurements could ever divert him. His house was 
the abode of hospitality and the high school of refinement in 
St. Louis and Missouri, and people from all parts of the State 
resorted to it as to the home of a brother and were received by 
his accomplished wife with the aftection of a sister or a mother 
and made welcome to all it afforded. Information was sought 
and given there by politicians of all parties with the utmost 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 7 1 

freedom and kind feelings, for peace and wisdom always pre- 
sided there in the person of Mrs. McNair and her well-trained 
children. St. Louis was singularly favored many consecutive 
years by the presence of the presiding Executive officers of 
the Territory and State and their exemplary families, for 
what has been written of Gov. MclSTair and family applies as 
well to his predecessor, Gov. "William Clarke, and family. Both 
families were held in the highest estimation as fit examples to 
all others. 

The first Female Charitable Society of St. Louis was organ- 
ized at the house of Gov. McNair, in the early part of this 
year, and Mrs. George F. Strother was elected the first Presi- 
dent and Mrs. McNair was elected first Vice-President of the 
society, composed of the most respectable ladies of all creeds. 

It was the first charitable society organized in St. Louis, 
and continued its operations, afi"ording great relief to the poor, 
until the growth of the city rendered more efficient charitable 
associations indispensable. 

The military operations of the United States against the hos- 
tile tribes of Indians of the Upper Missouri attracted the 
notice of all the peaceful tribes, and caused them to desire a 
personal interview with Gen. Clarke, the Indian Agent, and 
beloved and revered friend of all red men, now grown too old 
to visit them at their distant homes. Therefore a few of the 
prominent men of almost every peaceful tribe visited General 
Clarke with their families, dressed and painted in the most 
fanciful and varied styles of their different nations, during the 
summer, and were received by the General in the most digni- 
fied manner in his council chamber, which was his museum — a 
large room hung and filled in all parts with Indian curiosities 
alone : canoes, oars, arms, coats of mail, shields, clothes, beds, 
ornaments of every kind, cooking utensils, pipes, knives, 
spoons, trays, dishes, agricultural, mechanical and musical 
instruments, snow shoes and feet coverings, men and women's 
head gear, infants' clothing and cradles. They all came by 
their own conveyance and returned in the same way, in 
canoes, and while here encamped on the river bank between 
Green street and Bremen, then occupied by but five houses. 

The Indians, while visiting St. Louis, were in the habit of 
dressing themselves immediately after breakfast (which they 



72 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

always cooked themselves from provisions furnished hy Gen- 
eral Clarke) in their best attire, and then spent the day in a 
single group going from house to house showing themselves 
and dancing, singing, or making rude music in the style of 
their country, to amuse their auditory, some of whom would 
commonly make them a donation, and if it was liberal or sev- 
eral of them made, the performance was at once encored ; but 
if nothing was contributed, or some rude boy spat upon a dan- 
cer's foot or leg, the music ceased and the performers sul- 
lenly marched out of sight before they essayed further per- 
formances. 

These friendly visits and primitive exhibitions continued 
during the lifetime of Gen. Clarke, since which they have 
entirely ceased, and it would now be a novel sight to view a 
similar group walking through the streets of St. Louis, and 
attract as much attention as a herd of camels, so rapidly have 
the Indians since that period retired and given place to civili- 
zation and improvement. In June of this year the hearts of 
many in the city and throughout the State were gladdened by 
the return of the survivors of Gen. Ashley's Rocky Mountain- 
eers, alter an absence of lifteen months through the most ardu- 
ous, dangerous and interesting scenes that it is possible for 
men to be hired or persuaded into, and after having accom- 
plished more for themselves, their employers and their coun- 
try, than any person had dreamed of or thought possible to 
accomplish. They had enriched their employers, destroyed 
the influence of the Hudson Bay Fur Company among the 
Indians, and expelled their traders from the country. They 
had discovered an easy and practicable passage through the 
Rocky Mountains and examined the unexplored solitudes and 
vastly rich mineral regions beyond them, and laid them open 
to commerce and future cultivation. They had received double 
pay for their labors, and had assisted in avenging their fallen 
friends and secured safety from future aggression. 

It was no fiction. The demonstration was with them in the 
form of innumerable packs of beaver skins and other valuable 
furs and peltries that crowded the safely returned boats to 
St. Louis. 

Their leader was here, unchanged and unchangeable in coun- 
tenance or action. Still as an oyster, but vigilant as Argus, 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 73 

forming new scliemes corresponding with tlie advancing pro- 
gress of the age. He served as Lieutenant Governor during 
the term of Gov. McNair. A general election was to be held 
in August for all State officers and a member of Congress, the 
State having but one representative by the appointment of 
1820, at that time. 

In the political movements of the day there seemed to be a 
great variety of sentiment, and many candidates were pre- 
sented by their respective friends for almost ever}^ office. The 
election was held on the first Monday in August, at which 
Gen. William H. Ashley and Frederick Bates were candidates 
for Governor, the latter of whom was elected, but served only 
a small portion of his term, and died suddenly on the first of 
August following, of pleurisy. 

At this election John K. Walker was elected sheriff of St. 
Louis county, and being re-elected at the end of his term, filled 
that office four years. Hon. John Scott was re-elected to Con- 
gress for another term, having represented Missouri from the 
time of its admission into the Union, and as a delegate while it 
was a territory. As there were then several persons in nom- 
ination for the Presidency of the United States, four of whom 
were quite prominent, the probability was even thus early in 
the canvass that there would be no election in the electoral 
college, and that the election would ultimately be in the 
House of Representatives, in which case Missouri would be 
more certain of strength than New York or any large State 
whose Representatives might be divided. Therefore, the vote 
for Congressmen was most carefully watched by all the four 
parties, viz. : Adams, Clay, Crawford and Jackson, each of 
whom hoped Mr. Scott would favor them ; hence his easy tri- 
umph over all competitors. 

While political affiiirs engrossed the attention of a few poli 
ticians, the great body of Missourians were more profitably 
engaged in preparing for the rising greatness of the State. 

Every laborer in the rural districts (and indeed all was rural 
then), was striving to add his might to the general improve- 
ment and productiveness of the country, and it is now wonder- 
ful what a beneficial and happy effect that general action in 
one direction produced at that time. Good wheat was plenti- 
ful at 50 cents per bushel, corn 20 cents, potatoes the same. 



74 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

flour $1 50 per cwt, corn meal half that price. Corn fed, 
dressed pork, 1 50 per cwt., by the wagon load ; beef at the 
same price. Cows with young calves at from eight to twelve 
dollars, and good work oxen at from thirty to forty dollars per 
pair. Strange as it may now appear, people were soon out of 
debt and required no banks or loan offices for their relief or 
accommodation. New fences, new fields and new dwellings 
were rising in all directions and immigrants entering the State 
at every avenue. The older settlers m^io had involved them- 
selves in debt during the banking mania having recovered 
their reason, sold out their improved estates to the new com- 
ers, paid their debts and commenced business anew, wiser if 
not better men than before. 

These were halycon days to Missouri. Everything seemed 
growing new and young. There were no bank runners then 
hurrying about town, distributing little bits of paper marked 
with " Your note for $ — , due on — ," rendering the nights of 
the receiver feverish, sleepless and suicidal, and his visits to 
customers early next day uninvited and unpleasant. 

The nights of spring and autumn were mostly nights of illu- 
minations in one direction or another, as large prairies abounded 
in both the States of Missouri and Illinois, and the plowman 
had not controlled and prevented their annual burnings as at 
this day. Following every pleasant day of the spring and 
autumn of 1824 the lieavens were illuminated on one side or the 
other, and somtimes nearly all round from the horizon to near 
the zenith by accident or design, and having passed control, 
often blazed during the whole night with most astonishing bril- 
liancy, illuminating nearly the whole hemisphere. It was very 
common then on those brilliant occasions for large groups of 
people to assemble on the Big Mound, Iron Mountain and Pilot 
Knob to view the grandeur of the scene, than which few are 
more fascinating and sublime in all the works of nature or art. 
These, however, have forever passed away in the rapid march 
of improvement and the ever changing panorama of human 
affairs, and we are left with but a feeble description of those 
common, grand and sublime exhibitions of nature, interest and 
accidents of those early days in Missouri and Illinois. 

The result of the State election in August had developed the 
iact that Henry Clay was the first choice of the great body of 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 75 

the peoiDle for the Presidency, and he received the undivided 
presidential votes of the State in the college of Missouri, and 
forty-one electoral votes for President in the United States. 

This, with his acknowledged ability and great popularity, 
flattered the people of Missouri that their favorite would be 
elected in the House of Representatives, since the election 
would end there. 

This hope was strengthened by the re-election of Hon. David 
Barton to the Senate of the United States on the 25th of 
November, 1824, for six years, where his influence was expected 
in favor of Mr. Clay among his friends in the House of Repre- 
sentatives. Hon. John Scott had received 5,031 votes for 
Congressman at the State election in August ; Hon. George F. 
Strother, who had once represented a district of Virginia, 
received 4,528, and Hon. Robert Wash 1,125 votes. In all the 
votes given for these respective candidates not one was cast 
with the view, hope or intention that it should aid in electing 
John Quincy Adams to the Presidency of the United States 
over Henry Clay, the favorite and friend of Missouri, or the 
Southern hero, Andrew Jackson, who had received four more 
votes than any other candidate in the electoral college. Andrew 
Jackson had received 87 votes, John Quincy Adams 83, Henry 
Clay 41, including 3 from Missouri, and Mr. Crawford 39 votes 
in the college. 

Missouri was a slave State and supposed to be in sympathy 
with the other slave States and those bordering on the Ohio 
and its tributaries, and had so shown herself by her electoral 
votes. Twenty-five States then formed the Federal Union and 
thirteen were necessary to a choice. Well informed people 
throughout the United States supposed they knew from the 
voice of the people how their servants, the Representatives, 
would vote ; that is, they had every evidence that is usually 
relied on that on the first ballot Adams would receive 12 votes, 
Jackson 7 votes, Crawford 4 votes, and Clay 1 vote, necessi- 
tating a second ballot at least. 

The appointed day at length arrived, and many came pre- 
pared to witness a long and honorable struggle, but saw only 
a prescribed routine pursued in silence during a short period, 
when the announcement of the first ballot was made, and John 
Quincy Adams declared duly elected Presicjeiit of the United 



•jS HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

States, receiving the votes of thirteen States ; Andrew Jackson 
8, Mr. Crawford 4, and Henry Clay none. It was evident at a 
glance that Missouri's representative had disappointed her ex- 
pectations, and had seized on the pillars of the temple of hope 
for any of the other candidates, and pulled down the whole 
fabric, and buried his political life beyond the power of resur- 
rection in Missouri in the debris of down-fallen political faith. 

Gratitude to Mr. Clay for his services to Missouri left him 
still many friends, but the growing popularity of Gen. Jackson 
soon pointed him out as the available candidate for the next 
j)residency, and Mr. Clay's friends mostly attached themselves 
to his party as did also Mr. Crawford's. 

This movement gave Missouri a broad and stable front in 
the line of the friends of General Jackson, and they took the 
chief responsibility of political affairs for many years thereafter. 



CHAPTER iX 



The Imntation to the Marquis de LaFayette to Visit St. LouiSy 
and his Acceptance — His Arrival, deception and Departure. 

The disappointment of Missouri by the action of their repre- 
sentative in the presidential election was borne with philo- 
sophic patience and a watchful eye kept on all desirable 
vacancies within reach of a presidential gift as a reward for the 
presidential vote of Missouri. 

Nothing ci'iniinal or unseemly in the premises, however, was 
ever developed. He had joined himself to his idol and was 
permitted to worshij) it without opposition by all disappointed 
constituents. Missouri was not without strength and respecta- 
bility in Congress, notwithstanding the defection of its only 
representative. 

She had two giants in the Senate in the persons of Hon. 
Thomas H. Benton and Hon. David Barton, than whom two 
more able men seldom if ever graced the American Senate. 
They did not always entertain the same views on national 
measures, but they could explain their views in the most lucid 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 77 

manner tliat language can present, and, as the character of 
each for sincerity was never doubted, their words alwaj^'s car- 
ried weight, if not conviction, to the judgment of their hearers 
and always gave them a crowded and attentive auditory and 
merited fame. 

The city of St. Louis had enjoyed the advantage of its char- 
tered rights under its indefatigable and accomplished Mayor, 
Dr. William Carr Lane, two years, and had adopted a system 
of street improvements that gave evidence of a determination 
on the part of the people to make it a commercial and manu- 
facturing city with all the advantages the Mississip]3i could be 
made to afford. 

The attempt, therefore, of Dr. Lane to retire from the Mayor- 
alty, in the spring of 1825, would not be listened to by the 
people, and he was re-elected each succeeding year, as if by 
acclamation, as long as he could be persuaded to fill the office. 

Front street, or the Levee as it is now called, then had no 
existence as a street or landing, except at the east end of a few 
cross streets, but was a serrated limestone ledge of rocks, which 
formed a part of the inclosures of the blocks east of First or 
Main street, from the north line of the city to near the foot of 
Spruce street, where it disappeared under the alluvial bottom 
of Mill Creek, the southern boundary of the city at that period. 
The formation of this front into one grand continuous landing, 
levee or wharf attracted the early attention of Dr. Lane's com- 
prehensive and scientific mind, and he was prompt in placing 
it before the public eye for consideration. The St. Louis public 
then viewed the project as visionary, and the labor as hercu- 
lean, unnecessary and impossible, and it required years before 
those interested in its completion could be persuaded to acqui- 
esce in and willingly aid in its execution. 

Dr. Lane, however, lived to see his plan universally approved, 
and so far carried out as to afford berths for more than one 
hundred steamboats at a time to lie discharging and receiving 
freight, and crowded by commercial transactions and travelers. 
This was his chief reward for his services as Ma3"or, for his 
yearly salary was but three hundred dollars for performing all 
the duties of this responsible ofl[ice. 

But few of the benefactors of St. Louis have left a more 
honorable record of their labors than the first Mayor, and none 



^8 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI- 

deserves a more prominent niche in its temple of fame for his 
example of industry, perseverance and fidelity. 

The Marquis de Lafayette had arrived in the United States 
in 1824 on a national visit, on a formal invitation from all the 
American people, and was visiting the chief cities in such order 
as his friends thought most practicable and convenient to him- 
self and son, who accompanied him. 

From his first landing at New York the hearts of Missou- 
rians were elated with the hope that the great French patriot — 
the friend of Washington — would gratify them by visiting their 
State, then the most distant from the centre, and the youngest 
member of the Federal Union. They, therefore, at a public 
meeting convened for that purpose, prepared and forwarded by 
a suitable messenger a most kind and pressing invitation to 
Gen. Lafayette to visit them at their own distant homes, that 
they and their children might testify to him in person the love 
and gratitude they all felt for him for his disinterested devotion 
to their country's welfare in the day of its greatest need. 

To tills message the General returned such an answer as 
might have been expected from one possessing such a well- 
known benevolent heart, but stated he could not precisely fix 
on the time when he should have the happiness of visiting his 
former countrymen^ and the land once a part of his own coun- 
try, but now of his dearest friends. 

The answer was entirely satisfactor}'-, and no time was lost 
in making all the preparation possible to give so distinguished 
a personage a suitable reception. The whole population 
seemed to be putting themselves in preparation to partici- 
pate in the reception from that moment. 

He had spent most of the winter of 1824 and 1825 in visiting 
the people of the Southern States in their chief cities, and had 
arrived at New Orleans early in April, where communication 
with St. Louis was more frequent and easy, by which the anx- 
iety of the people to see him was intensified by the glowing 
accounts given in the journals of the day of his progress, and 
the ovations tendered him on all sides of his line of travel by 
all classes of the people. 

In short, our language is lean in words to adequately 
describe the enthusiasm of the people in all sections of the 
country to do honor to the living friend of Washington, who 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 79 

had come thousands of miles across the great deep at their 
request to let them look upon the face of the beloved friend of 
Washington. 

In the evening of the 28th of April, 1825, a courier arrived 
from Carondelet with the news that the Marquis de Lafayette 
had just arrived there, and would spend the night and come 
to St. Louis the next morning at 9 o'clock. 

The messenger was immediately followed by a dozen other 
persons hastening to their friends in St. Louis to apprize them 
of the joyful news, and, as their residences were scattered over 
the whole city, the information was communicated to every 
family that night, and every preparation made to witness the 
imposing ceremony of his public reception. 

Many persons from the city spent the night in bringing for- 
ward their friends from the country to participate in tlie gen- 
eral joy and tribute of respect and gratitude. 

At length the sleepless night passed away and more of the 
people of St. Louis witnessed the rising of the sun on that 
morning than had ever done it on one morning before. 

More than half the population of St. Louis, which was then 
about j&ve thousand, were present about the steamboat land- 
ing, the market house and every available standing point, to 
witness the landing of the most extraordinary, beloved and 
venerated hero that ever set foot on Missouri soil. 

The suspense was short as the boat was prompt to time, 
coming up close to the Illinois shore and opposite the head of 
the sand-bar on Duncan's island, when the prow was slightly 
turned toward the standing throng on shore. 

Here language is wanting to express the sensation of the 
people as the boat neared the landing and distinct individuals 
were recognized. No one stood still or kept their muscles still 
except those of the eyes, which were distended to their utmost 
capacity and scarcely allowed time to wink. 

When the boat began to slacken speed for landing, the 
group assembled on the boiler deck opened, and Gen. Lafa- 
yette, leaning on the arm of his son, walked up to the railing, 
while a shout such as St. Louis hills never echoed before rose, 
was repeated and encored until the boat landed, and Gen. La- 
fayette, assisted by his son, entered a carriage prepared for his 
reception, followed by the Honorable William Carr Lane, Mayor 



8o HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

of the city, Mr. Stephen Hempstead, an officer of the Revolu- 
tion, and Col. Anguste Chouteau, the chief of the pioneers who 
laid the foundation of the city. 

The carriage was an open barouche, and proceeded up Mar- 
ket street to Main, escorted by Captain Archibald Gam- 
ble's troop of horse and by Capt. David B. Hill's company of 
infantry, thence up Main street to the mansion of Pierre Chou- 
teau, Sen., southwest corner of Locust and Main streets, who 
had kindly thrown it open for the reception of the Ceneral and 
his friends. 

Gen. Lafayette was the guest of the city and was surrounded 
by its officers who presented and introduced a vast nimiber of 
citizens to their distinguished guest. Among this number one 
deserves to be particularly mentioned. This gentleman, then 
seventy years old, was Alexander Belliseme, who came to 
America on the same ship with the Marquis on his first visit 
to America when he came to tender his services to the United 
States. 

The scene was truly affecting when these old French sol- 
diers met after such a long separation and such wonderful 
vicissitudes as each had passed through. They embraced and 
kissed each other again and again, and talked over their 
reminiscences of the trip and its incidents. No one who wit- 
nessed it can ever forget it, and there were hundreds present at 
the time. Just before dinner the General paid a visit on foot to 
Gen. William Clarke's museum, some hundred yards distant, 
for his step was yet firm and his eyes still vivid with the ani- 
mation of youth, being then in the sixty-ninth year of his age. 
After dinner he visited Missouri Lodge No. 1 of Freemasons, 
and was received by about sixty brethren and welcomed 
by the late Archibald Gamble, and both himself and his son, 
George Washington Lafayette, were elected honorary mem- 
bers of that Lodge, two of whose members then present still 
survive. 

At evening a splendid ball was given at which was the elite 
of the city, and after it a sumptuous supper, in honor of the 
distinguished guests, and a general illumination of the city. 

On the following morning the Marquis with his suit was 
escorted to the boat by a crowd of citizens, who, as the boat 
glided down the Father of Waters, cheered him on his way to 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 8 1 

Kaskaskia as long as tlieir voices could be heard or their 
demonstrations noticed. 

The progress of Missouri in commercial pursuits had at 
length attracted the public attention at Washington so far as 
to induce Congress to survey a mercantile road across the 
Plains to New Mexico, and an act had been passed for that 
purpose, and commissioners appointed to superintend the sur- 
vey and locate the- road. As this road is all now out of this 
State, it may at first view seem to have little to connect it with 
the history of Missouri, but on a nearer view it will appear 
that Missouri and Missourians have enjoyed nearly all the 
advantages of the trade with New Mexico. In June, 1825, 
Maj. Sibley, who had been appointed one of the commission- 
ers to survey and establish the road, set out with Col. Joseph 
C. Brown as surveyor, and Capt. Archibald Gamble as secre- 
tary, and repaired to Independence, where he fitted out seven 
wagons laden with goods suitable for trading with the Indians 
on the route, and Mexicans at the end of the contemplated 
road, and pushed boldly into the almost interminable prairies 
of the West, in the direction of Santa Fe, and accomplished 
the object contemplated in the most satisfactory manner, 
without loss, delay or the least disappointment to any en- 
gaged in it. 

This road has been in constant use for more than forty years 
without visible change in its location, which speaks volumes 
in praise of the faithful location of it. 

Its advantages to Missouri over any other route will prevent 
any attempt to divert the general direction of the New Mexican 
trade from this long traveled road. 

While these commercial projects were being prosecuted with 
vigor, objects of a sacred and divine nature received their well- 
merited attention. 

On the 26th of June of this year, Rev. Salmon Giddings con- 
secrated the first Presbyterian church erected in the city. It 
was located on the northwest corner of Fourth and St. Charles 
streets. 

He had a very respectable congregation, which he had 
accommodated with a place of worship for several years, in his 
private school room, on -Market street, opposite the present 
Court house, where he taught a private school. 



82 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

The history of St. Louis would be incomplete without the 
record that Rev. Salmon Giddings was one of its earliest bene- 
factors, was a profound scholar, a faithful teacher and a good 
man ; that many of the most intelligent business men of the 
State are indebted to him for their scientific, moral and pol- 
ished education and their success in life. 

The demise of Gov. Frederick Bates, on thej^lst of August, 
1825, rendered an election necessary to fill the executive office, 
and among the prominent candidates were Col. Rnfus Easton 
Hon. David Todd, William C. Carr, Esq., and Gen. John Mil- 
ler. An exciting political campaign followed, resulting from 
the unsatisfied state of the public mind after the election of 
John Quincy Adams, in the House of Representatives, by the 
unexpected vote of Missouri. 

The contest resulted in the election of Gen. John Miller for 
Governor, and Col. B. H. Reeves for Lieut.-Governor. 



CHAPTER X. 



Tlie Assassination of Mr. Horatio Cozzens — Tlie Seat of 
Government Removed from St. Charles to Jefferson City — 
Hon. Thomas H. Benton Re-elected to the Senate of the 
United States. 

Industrial pursuits never had a firmer hold on the people of 
Missouri than in the spring of 1826. They had seen themselves 
relieved thereby from the evils of credit and banking systems, 
and seemed encouraged in their laudable efi'orts by the ready 
sale of all their surplus products to the constantly increasing 
numbers of new comers crowding into the State in search of 
new homes and a more extended field for their industrial ope- 
rations and enterprises. 

Everything seemed to have a natural growth and stimulant. 
Trade, though not brisk, was greatly extended and steadily 
increasing. All freighting was now done by steamboats on all 
the rivers, and coal began to be u§ed for warming dwelling 
houses in the city. The mining for lead in the vicinity of 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 83 

Dubuque, Iowa, and Fevre river and Galena, Illinois, gave great 
animation to all commercial operations in St. Louis, connected 
witli the trade on tlie Upper Mississippi, and during the year 
doubled the trade on that stream, which has increased rapidly 
since that period. The fur trade on the Missouri was prose- 
cuted with its usual activity, but not in the laborious mode of 
former years. Steamboats had taken the place of barges ; 
engines had assumed the labors of men, and steam had half 
annihilated distance and time. Trappers, hunters and voy- 
ageurs no longer paid their yearly visits in barges to St. Louis. 
They were seen no more on the streets, nor heard chatting 
with their wives and children round the tables spread in the 
piazzas of their little cottages surrounded with flowers and 
highly cultivated inclosures. A new age had overtaken and 
expelled them. 

Early in this year the classical department of studies in the 
St. Louis College on Second street, near the Cathedral, was sus- 
pended preparatory to aiding in establishing the St. Louis 
University on the site it now occupies. It is the first chartered 
literary institution and deservedly the most celebrated in the 
city. Its character is as well known and its documents as 
readily recognized at Copenhagen, St. Petersburg and Moscow 
as at Rome. 

The site of the old St. Louis College is now occupied by 
immense commercial buildings, and all the professors who ever 
taught in the institution except one are dead. 

Mr. Horatio Cozzens,who examined the senior class of 1823 
and eulogized it for its perfection, and who was regarded as 
the most accomplished scholar in the city at that day, is also 
dead. His death forms a part of the sad history of St. Louis. 
Mr. Horatio Cozzens was a lawyer of great eminence and had 
no equal as an orator or scholar in the city. He was emphat- 
ically the French people's shield from the sharpers of that day, 
as he spoke their language purely and was always accessible 
to them, being a gentleman of most fascinating manners and 
kind feelings. 

He had just finished the defense of a client before a jury in 
the office of Justice Penrose, in the old Masonic Hall building, 
on the north side of Elm street, between Main and Second 
streets, when French Strother, a young lawyer about twenty- 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



two years old, who was not engaged in the pending suit, bnt 
stood near him, intimated to Mr. Cozzens, in low words or by 
signs, that he wished to have a private interview with him out- 
side the office, and immediately stepped out of the office fol- 
lowed by Mr. Cozzens. 

In an instant Mr. Cozzens was heard to say, "You are acting 
like a savage." Mr. James Sutton, a juror, who was sitting 
near the window, looked out and saw the two men facing each 
other, and Mr. Strother with a dirk in his right hand striking 
over Mr. Cozzens left shoulder into his body, who immediately 
fell and expired. 

Mr. Strother was immediately arrested and committed to 
jail to await the action of the grand jury. He was confined in a 
cell with one John Brewer, under sentence of death for perjury 
in a capital case. On the night preceding the day set for his 
execution he broke jail, with Strother and several others, most 
of whom were recaptured ; but Strother made his escape to Mex- 
ico, where he died a few years since, in the city of Matamoras, 
in the State of Tamaulipas, of mania potu. 

The County Court took action this year for the erection of a 
court house on the site where it now stands, which it was esti- 
mated would cost twenty thousand dollars — considered a lib- 
eral expenditure at that time. 

As Missouri had but one Congressional representative to 
elect, a vast field was to be traversed in the canvass, and the 
candidates commenced their labors early in the spring. Not- 
withstanding so many of Mr. Scott's former friends had 
expressed their disapproval of his action in the late Presiden- 
tial election, he allowed his name to be used in the canvass. 
He was well known, had many personal friends and the whole 
strength of the Adams party, and obtained a very respectable 
vote, of 4,155. 

He was opposed by Mr. Edward Bates ( brother of the late 
Governor Frederick Bates), who received 6,635 votes, and was 
elected. 

The victory of Mr. Bates over Mr. Scott did not give the sat- 
isfaction to the Jackson party that was generally expected, 
as he was a very mild, peaceful, philosophic gentleman, who 
would not transcend a line of conduct that his judgment did 
not approve to gratify any party or retain office. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 85 

His popnlarity, therefore, was shortlived with those who had 
elected him, and a successor was sought for before he had en- 
tered on the duties of his office. 

At this third general election, held on the 7th day of August, 
1826, the friends of General Jackson in the Democratic party, 
as it was afterward called, obtained a very decisive majority, 
and thus became responsible for all the legislative acts, as a 
party, for many years thereafter. Its chief distinguishing fea- 
tures were opposition to banks and State indebtedness for 
internal improvements. 

At the session of the Legislature of this year the Chairman of 
the Committee on Education, Lilburn W. Boggs, recommended 
memorializing Congress for the selection of the 25,040 acres of 
land appropriated for seminary purposes. 

Then followed a discussion as to the location of the State 
University, which lasted twelve years, when it was finally 
located at Columbia, Boone County. 

On the 4th of July, 1826, a coincidence transpired that threw 
the whole American people into mourning, and at once recalled 
the political events of exactly half a century. Two of the ex- 
Presidents of the United States expired on the fiftieth anniver- 
sary of the nation's birth. 

At the commencement of the century they were both com- 
petitors for the highest office in the gift of the American peo- 
ple. Mr. John Adams was then the President of the United 
States ; and, on the 4th of March, 1801, retired, and his com- 
petitor, Thomas Jefferson, succeeded him, and filled the oflice 
satisfactorily eight years, and now they had both expired on 
the same day, equally covered with glory and honor, and full 
of years. 

They had differed in life only in the means of attaining the 
same end — the happiness and prosperity of their people. 

It became the nation to mourn and to do honor to these 
departed worthies. They had both assisted to fill the measure 
of their country's glory, and alike and together had received 
its homage and approbation. 

The sad news had arrived at St. Louis by the slow walk of 
that day, and on its receipt, Dr. Lane, the Mayor, by a procla- 
mation of 28th of July, convened the people to consider what 



86 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

action it beliooved them to take on the moiu'nful occasion, and 
appointed August the 3d, at 2 o'clock, p. m., in the Baptist 
Church, for the purpose. 

The people assembled pursuant to the proclamation ; Judge 
Peck, of the United States District Court, addressed the audi- 
ence, with several others, in speeches eulogistic of the departed 
patriots ; after which it was resolved to celebrate the double 
obsequies on the 7th inst., and due preparations were made 
for that purpose. The day was devoted to the solemn obse- 
quies. The stores and public places were closed, minute guns 
fired, flags floated at half mast, and all amusements were sus- 
pended in honor of the worthy dead. 

The stillness of the following night corresponded with the 
ceremonies of the preceding day, and afibrded a fit season for 
contemplating other coincidents that attracted the attention of 
the thoughtful of that day, and are yet worthy of a moment's 
notice of the lovers of historical facts : 

Fisher Ames, the friend and compatriot of those illustrious 
men, also died on the 4th of July- 
John Adams was eight years older than Thomas Jefferson, 
who was eight years older than James Madison, who was eight 
years older than James Monroe, who was eight years older 
than John Quincy Adams, so that each of the four last men- 
tioned persons entered on the duties of the Presidential office 
in the same year of their age. 

The seat of government of the State of Missouri was removed 
from St. Charles to the city of Jefferson, and the Legislature 
first met there on the 20th of November, 1826. 

At this session of the Legislature, on the 29th of December, 
Col. Thomas H. Benton was re-elected United States Senator 
for six years, and was thrice afterward re-elected to the same 
office, which he filled thirty consecutive years, from the com- 
mencement of the State government to the 4th of March, 1851. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 87 



CHAPTERXI. 

The St. Louis Arsenal Commenced, and a New Market House 
on Place d'Armes — Missouri Hibernian Relief Society 
Organized, and a Colonization Society. 

The re-election of Hon. Thomas H. Benton to the Senate of 
the United States showed very distinctly two parties only in 
the Legislature, and as the representatives had all been very 
recently elected by the people, the political character of the 
State was well known early in the year 1827. 

The friends of Gen. Jackson soon commenced political 
organizations under the name of Democrats, when their oppo- 
nents followed soon after under the name of Whigs, and under 
these two distinctive names maintained most exciting strug- 
gles for a quarter of a century thereafter. 

y [ Early in the year Senator Benton, by leave, introduced a bill 
into Congress to graduate the price of the public lands and to 
donate to the States in which they lay all that had been offered 
a certain number of years and all that remained unsold after 
a certain number of years. This bill he supported with all 
his ability, assisted by many of the most talented men of the 
Western States, but failed, as he was opposed by his colleague, 
Senator Barton, at the most important crisis of his effort, in a 
most eloquent speech of that distinguished orator and states- 
man. Strange as it may seem to people of this day, the people 
of that day believed both their senators acted conscientiously, 
although so much at variance with each other and yet both as 
learned. More than forty years have since elapsed, both sen- 
ators are now dead, the whole subject has been examined and 
reviewed, and yet the integrity of both remains as brilliant as 
at that period. 

The speeches of both Senators are preserved and the subject 
is still open. An act of Congress had been passed authorizing 
the selection of a site for a United States Arsenal near St. 
Louis, and the present site was selected and building and wall- 
ing commenced this year, but prosecuted with very little 
energy that season. The location then was one mile south of 
the south line of the city which was the mouth of Mill Creek, 



88 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

near the Gas Works. There was then but one bridge across 
Mill Creek on the south line of the city, and but one road lead- 
ing southwardly from the city to Carondelet, and not a yard of 
the distance either paved, macadamized or graded. 

A new era, however, was dawning on St. Louis. The old 
market house on the north end of Place d'Armes, running par- 
allel with Market street (and the only one in the city), was 
found to be too small for the accommodation of the people 
dependent on it. The Mayor and Aldermen therefore passed 
an ordinance for borrowing money for building a market house 
on the Place d'Armes, parallel with Main street, on the east 
side of the block, and appropriated it to that purpose, which, 
by having a town house above and stores below, seemed for a 
short time to relieve the desideratum. 

The erection of this magnificent building, as it then was 
deemed to be, induced many owners of lots in the immediate 
vicinit}^ to improve them, and soon gave this part of the city a 
more animated and commercial appearance, and obliterated 
most of the old landmarks, except the streets themselves. 
Improvements seemed not to be contined to this location only ; 
they extended to all-parts of the city at the same time. 

New brick j^ards were established, new lumber yards and 
new quarries were being opened in the suburbs, and sites for 
new dwellings selected and improved. 

The new buildings in progress of construction showed the 
necessit}^ of having the cross streets graded and some of them 
paved, and accordingly an ordinance was passed by the city 
authorities for paving Olive and Chesnut streets from Fourth 
street to the river, and Green street from Main street to 
the river. 

The confidence which these measures inspired induced the 
building of a row of two-story dwellings on the north side of 
Chesnut street, between Main and Second streets, called Kerr's 
Row, which was the first row of two-story brick dwellings 
erected within the city on a cross street. The neAv buildings 
in progress of erection difi'ered so far in materials and sym- 
metry from what had been in use in former years that all imi- 
tation of former style in building was abandoned, and the 
monuments of French and Spanish architecture rapidly gave 
place to the new order of improving the city. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 89 

The taxes on lots within the city for street improvements 
were constantly increasing as the work progressed, and stimu- 
lated the owners to either build upon them or dispose of them 
to others who would, and thus vacant and idle lots no longer 
disfigured paved streets than was unavoidable. 

New buildings, new trades, new enterprises in all directions 
showed themselves, and gave life, vigor and encouragement to 
every branch of industry. 

At this period the French language was spoken- in half the 
families residing in St. Louis, and there was no charitable soci- 
ety of any particular nationality. 

l!^evertlieless it was easier and more speedy for the indigent 
and needy then to obtain relief among the old French resi- 
dents and the emigrants of that day than its has ever been 
since, with all our large systematic and bannered societies of 
different creeds and nationalities. 

The Missouri Hibernian Relief Society was organized this 
year by the enterprising Irish emigrants, who then outnum- 
bered ail other Europeans, except the Frencli, James C, 
Lynch was the first president, and William Piggott its first 
secretary. 

The object of the society was " to relieve those distressed in 
their native land and assist those who desired to emigrate to 
our shores." 

There were le-ss than a dozen German families in the city of 
St. Louis. In the trial of a case of the larceny of a cow, where 
a German was a material witness, it was with difficulty an 
interpreter could be procured, until the witness vociferated 
^' David Deshler," who was immediately sent for and brought 
into court to translate. This incident furnished him with 
plenty of visitors, as the German immigration to St. Louis was 
then .just commencing, and his urbane disposition attracted all 
to him who required the assistance of a German interpreter or 
adviser ; and as he would accept nothing for his services, few 
have been really greater benefactors in St. Louis than David 
Dreshler, while he resided here. 

The colonization of people of color at Liberia, on the coast 

of Africa, had become a very popular measure in some parts of 

the American Union, particularly in the slave States, and the 

friends of slavery, desiring to remove the free colored from the 

7 



90 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

slaves, "became, in many instances, its most active advocates 
and promoters. 

Missionary societies also seized on it as a fit channel by 
wliicli to spread the knowledge of the Gospel among the idola- 
ters of xVfrica, and gave it their nndivided support. 

So important a subject could not escape the notice of the 
enlightened citizens of St. Louis, nor be allowed to pass without 
action or participation. 

A call was, therefore, made for the citizens who were friendly 
to the measure to meet and consider what action it was proper 
for its friends in St. Louis and Missouri to take in the premises. 

Accordingly, a meeting was held in the Baptist Church, 
where the St. Clair Hotel now stands, which, for talent, weight 
of character and unity of sentiment, has never been excelled 
by a meeting of like numbers in the State, and its selection of 
officers shows in what light the meeting viewed the subject ; and 
after it had been organized and the object explained and dis- 
cussed it was determined to form a Colonization Society auxil- 
iary to the American Society, to be called " The St. Louis Aux- 
iliary American Colonization Society," and to elect its officers 
from the persons present who gave in their names as members. 

Twenty officers were then elected from the society in 1828, 
and now in 1869, after a lapse of forty-one years, they are all 
numbered with the dead except three. Yet their memories are 
still brilliant, and form a part of the honorable historj^ of the 
builders of the fame of St. Louis and Missouri. The following 
were the officers elected, viz. : Hon. William C. Carr, President ; 
Col. John O'Fallon, Hon. James H. Peck, Dr.';Wm. Carr Lane, 
Hon. Edward Bates, Vice Presidents ; Theodore Hunt, Edward 
Charless, Hon. Henry S. Geyer, Charles S. Hempstead, Thomas 
Cohen, Hon. Robert Wash, Dr. H. L, Hoffman, Col. Joseph C. 
Laville, Rev. Salmon Giddings, John H. Gay and Rev. John 
M. Peck, Managers ; Josiah Spalding, Corresponding Secre- 
tary ; Daniel Hough, Recording Secretary ; Henry Von Phul, 
Treasurer. 

The United States had purchased the site on which Jefferson 
Barracks now stand, and formed a cantonment there, ten miles 
below the city of St. Louis, and, as in other armies, quarrels 
occasionally arose among the men and ended in acts of great 
violence. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 9I 

Sucli an occurrence transpired there in this jenr : one 
Hugh King, a soldier in the United States Army, murdered a 
sergeant of his company, and was executed for it after a trial 
under the laws of the State of Missouri, in the usual form, 
near the city. 

The quadrennial election was to be held in this year, and 
the most active and efficient preparations were early made by 
both parties to bring forward all their strength. 

There were no railroads or telegraphs in those days, nor 
many weekly mails ; therefore couriers for the distribution of 
handbills and messages were in great demand and lean horses 
plentiful. 

The country was full of patriots who were willing to serve 
their country in the offices of that day, although the emolu- 
ments were not half equal to those now paid, and thus the 
State was overrun with patriotic candidates for every office in 
it. This made lively times for bar-tenders, but sad ones for 
candidates, cooks and wives who were expected to keep open 
house during the canvass, although it often emptied both the 
smoke-houses and the poultry-yards, to their no limited incon- 
venience. 

At length the 4th of August, 1828, arrived, which was to 
terminate the canvass. Hon. John Miller was the only candi- 
date whose friends continued their candidate's name before 
the voters for the office of Governor, and was, of course, elected. 
The office of Lieutenant-Governor was closely contested by 
five candidates — Samuel Perry, Felix Scott, Alex. Stuart, Dan- 
iel Dunklin and Alex. Buckner. Daniel Dunklin was elected. 
There were three prominent candidates for Representative in 
Congress at the commencement of the canvass — Hon. Edward 
Bates, Dr. William Carr Lane and Spencer Pettis, Esq. The 
first was on '.he Whig ticket and the two latter on the Demo- 
cratic ticket, and so nearly did the friends of the last two seem 
to be balanced that they submitted the question to Col. Benton 
to say which should be the candidate, to secure the election of 
one of them. Col. Benton's knowledge of the two candidates 
enabled him to give a prompt decision in favor of Mr. Pettis, 
which was promulgated by handbills through the State but a 
short time before the election. 

This decision, which secured the election of Mr. Spencer 



92 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

Pettis to the United States House of Representatives, also had 
the effect of keeping the Jackson or Democratic partj'' united 
for a long time by its example. 

A meeting had been held on the 8th of January, 1828, at 
Jefferson City, by the friends of Gen. Jackson, to nominate an 
electoral ticket to be voted for at the Presidential election, to 
be held on the 3d of November of that year, when Missouri 
had but three electoral votes. Dr. John Bull, of Howard county, 
Major Benjamin O'Fallon, of St. Louis county, and Ralph 
Doughert}^, of Cape Girardeau county, were nominated electors 
for the three districts of the State, elected at the Presidential 
election held on the 3d of November, 1828, and all cast their 
votes for Andrew Jackson for President and Martin Van Buren 
for Vice-President of the United States. The friends of Mr. 
Adams, the President then in office, did not suffer the election 
to go by default, but, on the 8th of March following, met in Jef- 
ferson City and nominated Benjamin A. Reeves, of Howard 
count}^, Joseph C. Brown, of St. Louis county, and John Hall, 
of Cape Girardeau county, as electors, and at the Presiden- 
tial election in November supported them with the whole 
strength of the Adams or Whig party, of 3,400 votes — without 
success, as the Democrats or Jackson party polled 8,272 votes 
against them, showing 11,672 votes cast at that election in the 
State. 



CHAPTER XII. 



TTie Court House Finished, and an Episcopal ChurcTi — Tlie 
Brancli of tlie Old United States Bank Opened in St. Louis 
— Inauguration of Water Works System. 

The year 1829 opened with flattering indications of pros- 
perity in all parts of the State, and in the city of St. Louis in 
particular. The Legislature had already formed many new 
counties, and early in this, year altered the lines of some, 
divided others, formed new ones and defined the county seats, 
and passed many acts which show that the men of that day 
saw the signs of the coming greatness of Missouri and pre- 
pared to aid it by necessary legislation. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 93 

The citizens of St. Louis manifested the same confidence in 
the growtli of the city, and doubled the number of new build- 
ings of any former year. The court house was tinished, accord- 
ing to the original plan, which has been altered and greatly 
enlarged on all sides since, so that few of its original fea- 
tures, except the site, now appear. 

The Episcopalians this year erected a neat church edifice, 
called Christ's Church, on the northwest corner of Third and 
Chesnut streets, which has long since been removed to give 
place to the large business houses that now occupy its site ; 
and the same society have since built, and now occupy, that 
magnificent church edifice at the northeast corner of Locust 
and Thirteenth streets, and worship in it. This society was 
formed in November, 1819, and in its progress has done as 
much to elevate the character of the people of St. Louis as any 
other by precept and example. 

Dr. William Carr Lane, having served as Mayor of the city 
six years, with credit to himself and satisfaction to the people, 
declined permitting his name to be used as a candidate for 
that office, and at the election held on the first Monday in 
April Daniel D. Page was elected Mayor of the city, and 
entered upon the discharge of the duties of the office with the 
entire confidence of the people, which he always retained while 
he would consent to hold the office. His administration is 
remarkable chiefly for the inauguration of the present water 
works system. In the preceding month Gen. Andrew Jackson 
had been inaugurated President of the United States, and his 
friends being largely in the majority in Missouri, the hopes of 
all seemed buoyant and business brisk. The United States 
Bank was then at the zenith of its financial glory, and its 
directors observing the flattering condition of the commerce of 
St. Louis without any banking facilities of its own, established 
a branch of that institution in the city. The officers appointed 
over the institution were, at its inauguration. Col. John O'Fal- 
lon. President ; Henry S. Cox, Cashier ; George K. McGunne- 
gle. Clerk, and Thomas U. Duncan, Teller. The Directors, 
were — William Clarke, Thomas Biddle, Peter Lindell, William 
H. Ashley, John Mullanphy, George Collier, James Clemens, 
Jr., Matthew Kerr, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., Edward Tracy, Sam- 
uel Perry of Potosi, and Peter Bass of Boone County. 



94 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

It is very seldom that sucli a number of reliable business 
men are thrown together to act on such a wide-spread field, 
and none probably ever conducted an affair more successfully 
to its complete termination. The government sustained a loss 
of only one hundred and twenty -five dollars during the many 
years the branch operated under the direction of these men. 

The introduction of this institution at this crisis was fraught 
with great advantage to every kind of business, and damage 
to none, as it had no competitor ; and, being guided by per- 
sons identified with every local interest, its whole ability was 
exerted to build up every branch of business and promote the 
general welfare and improvement of the State and city. Silver 
coin had then been the circulating medium of the country for 
many years, and the vast influx of foreigners from many parts 
of the world had put the coins of nearly all the enlightened 
nations into circulation among the people of Missouri, so that 
more than half of the circulating medium was foreign coin, 
chiefly Mexican dollars, five-franc French or Italian pieces, 
and Prussian or German thalers. Soon after the opening of 
the Branch Bank, United States notes and half dollars took 
the place of all larger coins while the charter of the bank 
lasted. U. S. Bank notes and half dollars were the chief circu- 
lating medium, as Spanish dollars and United States gold were 
at a premium sufiicient to cause their withdrawal from circula- 
tion, and very few now exist of older date than 1830. 

The improvement of the streets of the city was vigorously 
prosecuted, according to the original design. Seventh street 
was widened to sixty feet and extended to the northern line of 
the city. Fourth street was surveyed to Lombard street, and 
widened where it was less than eighty feet wide, to that width ; 
and Second street was graded and paved between Olive and 
Yine streets; and Locust street was also paved from Main 
street to the western side of Fourth street, and preparations 
made to gradually extend the pavements through the city. 
This congeries of facilities for the transaction of business 
inspired confidence in the certain growth of the city and the 
increase of its commerce. Several warehouses were erected on 
the Levee or Front street and several good stores were built on 
Main street during the year. Some of the early settlers located 
on Main street had become quite weary of the inconvenience 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 95 

tlieir families suffered by being confined to so limited a space 
as the expansion of business had forced upon them, and began 
to build new dwellings in the more retired parts of the city and 
to allow their old residences to be converted into places of 
business as the expanding demands required. 

The increase in population, as shown by the census, was 
slow during the decade between 1820 and 1830, in consequence 
of many old French families who were fond of a rural life 
retiring into the country, as facilities for their obtaining a sub- 
sistence were daily diminished in the city. The hunters, trap- 
pers, bargemen and voyageurs also gradually disappeared as 
new comers of other occupations required their places of resi- 
dence. Moreover, a very considerable portion of the most 
industrious part of the population were those who had suffered 
by the failure of the St. Louis Banks, and, therefore, would not 
encourage their friends to settle among them until they saw 
success within their certain grasp thereafter. 

The population of the city had only reached 6,694 at the cen- 
sus of 1830, being but little over 2,000 more than it was in 1820. 
It, however, reached 16,649 in the next decade, being an 
increase of nearly 10,000. 

The year 1830 was rendered remarkable for the general 
enlightenment of the people of Missouri in regard to the qual- 
ity of the different kinds of salt they were in the daily use of, 
and the immense burden that they and all the people of the 
Western and Southern States had long been subject to, 
without understanding the disadvantages under which they 
labored or knowing the weight of the burden they bore. 

In the settlement of the Western States the first and great 
desideratum was a supply of good, wholesome salt, and neces- 
sity compelled them at an early day to manufacture it from 
fountains, more or less impregnated with other deleterious sub- 
stances, and to use it for a long period before a good article 
could be procured elsewhere. 

At length, with the improvements of the age, the article 
became plentiful at our great seaports, but covetous rulers 
had watched its charms, and had seized it as one of the most 
available objects from which to collect a large revenue, and 
imposed a tax on it of over two hundred per centum on its 
cost, and continued it fifteen years, in time of peace, until the 



g6 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI, 

people Iiad despaired of relief and nearly forgotten the "burden 
they bore, when tliey were entirely relieved of it by one of tlieir 
senators. Missouri now, only in the tenth year of her age^ 
had become celebrated by the wisdom and perseverance of her 
senators, who were, at that early day, listened to as oracles in 
the Senate, and one indeed seemed at a later period to have 
been inspired, and the people had become enlightened as to 
the weight of the burdens they bore; but as to the qualities 
and cost of the salt they then used, experiments, science and 
interest had but partially infonned them of the disadvantages 
under which they were then laboring^ and from which there 
seemed little prospect of relief. 

The products of theWestern S-tates were then just beginning to 
make their appearance in the markets of the world, and their 
qualities were examined and their defects exposed in all tlieir 
bearings. Tlie immense swine cro-ps of the Western States 
required such a vast amount of salt for their preservation that 
its importance as a subject of taxation could not escape the 
observation of all whose duty it was to frame laws for the peo- 
ple ; and that it should have been pennitted to burden the pio- 
neers and settlers of the infant States such a length of time 
under the eyes of such men as then controlled the tariff is one 
of those inexplicable blunders which posterity may profit by 
avoiding, but will gain nothing by discussing at this late day 
or charging upon the selfish actions of those who permitted it. 

The speech of Senator Benton on the salt tax, however, forms 
a part of the history of Missouri (although delivered in the 
Senate chamber at Washington), as it enlightened the people of 
Missouri in regard to the quality, value and uses of the different 
kinds of salt in our markets, and added much to that knowl- 
edge Avhicli has elevated the character of Missouri meats in all 
markets where they are exposed for sale. 

The District Court of the United States held its sessions in 
St. Louis in this year, Judge James H. Peck presiding. Among 
otlier weighty matters on trial before that court was one in which 
Auguste Chouteau and others appeared as plaintiffs against the 
United States, defendant. Col. Luke E. Lawless, a gentleman 
of profound learning in the law, appeared as chief counselor 
for the plaintiffs. 

In the decision of the suit, which was against the plaintiffs, 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 97 

the Judge delivered a very learned disquisition (wMcli was 
printed, to the great annoyance of Col. Lawless). 

This legal decision was criticised by the senior counsel of 
the claimants under an anonymous signature in a public j)aper, 
for which the publisher was arrested for contempt of judicial 
dignity, and brought into court, when Col. Lawless declared 
himself the author, and attempted a justification on the ground 
that it was only an examination of a judicial decision, and not 
an attempt to reflect on official dignity. 

Judge Peck, however, thought otherwise, and sent him to 
prison and suspended him from practicing for a time in that 
court, by way of punishment for contempt. In conformity to 
that judgment. Col. Lawless went immediately to prison, sur- 
rounded by a crowd of his friends. A writ of habeas corpus 
was soon obtained, and he was released from confinement and 
repaired to the city of Washington and preferred charges against 
Judge Peck, before the House of Representives, which im- 
peached him before the Senate. 

After a careful investigation the impeachment was dismissed, 
and Judge Peck continued in office until his death, several 
years after. 

During the progress of these movements in court, prison and 
Congress society manifested much interest and excitement, as 
both gentlemen were eminent and acted with dignity ; yet in 
the countenance of each was observable a very unsatisfied 
mind and disposition that required the exercise of all the phi- 
losophy and knowledge of the law they were masters of to 
keep them in their proper orbits while in the presence of each 
other. Col. Lawless had his title from the office he had held 
in the French army under the first Napoleon, and had been 
admitted to the bar in the Court of King's Bench in his native 
country, and possessed many other qualifications that would 
render him distinguished in any situation or society. Few men 
pass through so many vicissitudes in life as he had by force of 
circumstances beyond his own control, and yet exhibit no want 
of energy or ability. Judge Peck was one of the favorites of 
Minerva, who had from infancy enjoyed her smiles and favors, 
and in early life obtained the j)osition which, of all others, he 
seemed best qualified to fill with credit to himself and -pioiit to 
Ms countrymen. 



^8 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

Elated "by liis success and position, lie seemed to deem it a 
dut}^ for liim to appear perfect in ever5^tliing and an example 
to all, and probably no person in the city at that day displayed 
a disposition to elevate the character of the peoj^le among 
whom he dwelt more than he in every position where he acted. 
Col. Lawless was afterward appointed Judge of the Circuit 
Court of St. Louis county, and tilled the office very acceptably 
many years. 

It may appear remarkable that neither of these gentlemen 
has left a relative among us or a monument of their labors to 
recall them to memory or enlighten posterity. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Tlie Duel between Hon. Spencer Pettis and Major Thomas 
Blddle, and the Attending Circumstances. 

The Twenty-first Congress would complete the term for 
which Senator David Barton had been elected, and from the 
well-known state of the political parties no hope of his re- 
election by the Legislature was entertained by his admiring 
political friends, who were certain of being deprived of his 
influence and ability in Congress unless he could be returned 
to the Lower House at the next election. Early prejDarations 
were therefore made, and his name placed prominently before 
the people as a candidate to represent the State in the House 
of Representatives, where Missouri had as yet but one member 
to represent her and many interests that required the attention 
of an able and experienced statesman. 

Under these circumstances Mr. Barton, then a Senator, be- 
came a candidate for representative in the Twenty-second 
Congress, being assured of the support of all the Whig or 
Adams party, and his personal friends, who were very numer- 
ous. The acknowledged ability of Mr. Barton and his long 
experience in public life made him a formidable competitor 
in a canvass extending over the whole State of Missouri, against 
Hon. Spencer Pettis, a very young member of the twenty-first 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



99 



Congress, about half through his term of office. The canvass 
comraencecl with great spirit on both sides, and in its progress 
led to circnmstances which the historian (after a lapse of forty 
years and the death of all the actors and near relatives who 
bore their names) can not omit to relate as they transpired 
without marring the perfection of his narrative of facts as they 
were made known to the public at the time of their occurrence. 

On the part of the Adams or Whig party, as it then and for 
many years after was known, Hon. David Barton was the only 
candidate presented, and the whole undivided strength of the 
party was exerted to secure his election. 

Tlie rechartering of the United States Bank was the chief 
measure he was expected to exert his masterlj^ mind and 
eloquence on, and as far as he canvassed the State he devoted 
his attention to the subject. 

The Democratic or Jackson party at the opening of the can- 
vass found three persons willing to serve them as representa- 
tive in Congress — Mr. James Evans, from the soutliwest part of 
the State, and Mr. James H. Birch, from the northern part. 
Each of these gentlemen, after having ascertained the partiality 
the people felt for the young man they already had in Congress, 
returned to their homes and supported Mr. Pettis to the end of 
the canvass. 

In the meantime Mr. Pettis returned home and made arrange- 
ments for canvassing the State, making appointments through 
the State where and when he would address the people, and 
set a time for addressing the people of St. Louis (his place of 
residence), which he was prevented from accomplishing by 
indisposition. 

In his address to his constituents his remarks were often 
laden with charges against the conduct of the officers of the 
United States Bank, of which Nicholas Biddle was President, 
and an active politician in the "Whig ranks. 

These speeches of Mr. Pettis were reported in part in the 
journals of the day, some portions of which reflected on Mr. 
Nicholas Biddle, who was regarded as a spotless patriot by 
many at that day, and second to no man out of public office as 
possessing political power and influence. 

His brother. Major Thomas Biddle, was a paymaster in the 
United States Army, and resided in St. Louis, where he saw 



rOO HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

the reports of those speeches, and although not a candidate for 
any office or in any wise connected with the canvass, he attacked 
Mr. Pettis in a public journal in such a manner that he thought 
proper to retort through a similar channel and in an equally 
rude and personal manner. 

The severity of Mr, Pettis' strictures threw Major Biddle off 
his usual course of urbane proceeding, and impelled him to 
commit an outrage for which he afterward consented to sacri- 
fice his life by way of honorable reparation and atonement. 

Mr. Pettis had returned from the interior of the State in 
feeble health from a bilious attack, about the 25th of July, and 
took lodgings, as usual, at the City Hotel, his former residence. 

Major Biddle was soon informed of his return, and at even- 
ing prepared a cowhide and repaired alone to the hotel with 
his weapon concealed. Early next morning, before any of 
the lodgers had risen, meeting a black waiter at the door, he 
asked him to show him to Mr. Pettis' room, which he did. He 
found the door opening on the piazza ajar, and Mr. Pettis lying 
in his night clothes on a mattress spread on the floor in front 
of the door, wrapped only with a sheet, and asleep. 

The Major stripped the sheet at once from the person of 
Mr. Pettis with one hand and applied the cowhide as vigorously 
as possible with the other, which in a moment brought a crowd 
on the piazza and put an end to the violence, as Major Biddle 
hastened out of the hotel without a moment's delay or uttering 
a word. 

This occurrence produced great excitement in the hotel and 
city at the time, but the feeble health of Mr. Pettis prevented 
him from making any immediate movement. 

Moreover, the canvass went on, and Mr. Pettis was re-elected 
by a large majority, which showed his party united and largely 
in the majority in the State. Mr. Pettis waited quietly for the 
report of the result of the election, which was held on the 
2d of August, 1830, and to regain his health to enable him to 
avenge himself for the injury he had received from Maj. Biddle. 
Being desirous of placing all the prominent facts in the case 
before the public in case of any fatal result from a meeting on 
the street, Mr. Pettis wrote out an affidavit of the prominent 
facts and went before Justice Peter Ferguson, and, after being 
sworn to the truth of the statement, was about to take the 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. lOI 

affidavit to a printing office for publication, when the Justice 
informed him he considered it his duty to issue a writ on that 
affidavit and put Major Biddle under a bond to keep the peace, 
which was immediately done, while Mr. Pettis was present 
with a few friends. 

In the progress of the proceedings it became evident to the 
magistrate that Mr. Pettis intended to violate the peace, and 
he put him under a bond also. This induced Maj. Biddle to 
address a remark to Mr. Pettis equivalent to a promise that if 
Mr. Pettis would challenge him he would accept it. He was 
promised that honor by Mr. Pettis, which was fultilled by a 
challenge sent the following day, and accepted by him. The 
next day — Friday, August 27th, at 5 o'clock p. m., on Bloody 
Island, now East St. Louis — the meeting was to be held for 
satisfaction, by the parties being duly stationed at the dis- 
tance of five paces asunder (to be within range of Maj. Biddle's 
vision, which was very limited), each holding a loaded pistol 
in his hand. At the appointed time and place every part of 
the arrangements was punctiliously carried out, and at the 
first fire, which was simultaneous, both parties fell mortally 
wounded ; and, to conclude the whole affair, they exchanged 
forgiveness with each other in the arms of death on the field 
where they had mutually destroyed each other's life. 

Mr. Pettis died the next day ( Saturday ) and was buried on 
Sunday following. Maj. Biddle survived until Monday follow- 
ing, when he died and was buried on Wednesday with the 
honors of war by his military associates from Jetferson Bar- 
racks. Neither of these gentlemen left children to inherit 
their names or estates or to be distressed by their reckless 
folly, but they each left a host of admiring friends, who were 
pained to see them immolate themselves for such a phantom 
of glory while such a wide field for usefulness lay spread out 
before them. 

It is pleasant to turn from such tales of strife and blood and 
relate how the messengers of peace and good will to men were 
employing themselves at the same time in improving and 
beautifying the city. 

On the first day of August in this year the corner-stone of 
the cathedral was laid on Walnut street between Second and 
Third streets with the usual religious ceremonies, and that 



I02 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

venerable edifice was completed with all reasonable dispatch, 
wherein worshiped the whole Catholic population of the city 
at that time, as they had then no other place of worship. It 
is the oldest place of worship in the city, as all of a prior date 
have given place to the commercial pressure which forty years 
have brought against them, and their sites are occupied by 
other edifices. 

The death of Mr. Spencer Pettis left Missouri without a 
representative in the lower house of Congress and necessi- 
tated another election to fill the vacancy in the twenty-first 
Congress. A special election was, therefore, ordered by the 
Governor for that purpose, and the amiable character and 
known popularity of Gen. William H. Ashley at once pointed 
him out as the most suitable person to represent the State, now 
become conspicuous by the actions of her statesmen, and he 
was elected almost without opposition to that honorable office, 
which he filled during the remainder of the twenty-first Con- 
gress, and the twenty-second also, with that efficiency, silence 
and success that marked his active and useful life in every 
position where he was called to act. His thorough knowledge 
of the vast wilderness of the West, acquired by his own per- 
sonal travels and observations, qualified him for giving infor- 
mation on all subjects connected with the interests of Missouri 
and regions in controversy on the Columbia river jointly occu- 
pied by the British and the United States for traders and trap- 
pers, and caused his society to be sought by the statesmen of 
that day who valued the Pacific territory, and were striving to 
rid it of the incubus of a joint British and United States occu- 
pancy. His quiet and persistent course in acquainting the 
State Dei^artment with the evils of the joint occupancy and his 
pressing solicitations for its termination at length had the 
effect of rousing the people to the danger of a longer continu- 
ance of a measure that brought the two greatest maritime 
nations on the globe to the very verge of war, and by which, 
even at this late day, it is believed by many that the United 
States lost territory to avoid war many 3^ears after. 

The Legislature chosen at the biennial election of 1830 
elected Alexander Buckner to the Senate of the United States, 
to succeed Hon. David Barton, whose term of service would 
expire on the 4th of March, 1831, after filling the office ten 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. IO3 

years with most consummate ability and satisfaction to the 
Federal or Whig partisans, his admirers and faithful support- 
ers for Representative for the twentj^-second Congress. 

The United States census taken this year showed the State 
to contain 140,455 inhabitants, of which 569 were free colored, 
and 25,091 were slaves. 

This showed a rapid increase in population, it having been 
more than doubled in the last decade ; and other stat- 
istics exhibited an equally flattering condition of everything 
that tended to the rising greatness of the State. 



CHAPTERXIY. 

Tlie Erection oftlie Second MarTiet in St. Lonis, on Broad-- 
loay — The Sympathy of Missourians with the People of 
Illinois Distressed hy the Black Hawk War — Their Res- 
ponse — Excitement in St. Louis hy the Veto of the Bank 
Bill, on July 10th, 1832, hy the President — The First Appear- 
ance of Cholera. 

The most remarkable feature noticed by travelers visiting 
the West at that time was the activity manifested at St. 
Louis in transportation by steamboats, as that had become 
the only mode of conveyance of goods for all the States in the 
valley of the Mississippi, and the vast territories that received 
their supplies from this central depot b}^ steamboat convey- 
ance as far as the waters were able to float them. 

The appearance of the city, both within and without, had 
already undergone a remarkable change, and the occupations 
of many of its inhabitants had, by force of circumstances, been 
abolished or so altered that it appeared like quite another city 
in the most populous parts. The lines of Carondelet, or Vide 
Poche, wood carts were no longer seen or heard entering the 
city by Second street, or ranged about the thoroughfares wait- 
ing for purchasers ; nor barges being navigated along the front 
of the city, nor yawls conveying passengers across the Father 
of Waters or collecting flood- wood from the river. 



104 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

A new era had arrived. Science had obtained control of 
steam and subjected it to the will of men, and compelled it to 
perform the labors of both men and beasts. Horses on the 
ferry boats were no longer in use — the " iron horse " had taken 
their places ; and coal as fuel had been substituted for wood to 
a great extent within the city. The speed of the ferry boats 
propelled by steam had made 3'awls unnecessary and useless, 
and crossing more pleasant and safe. 

The view of the city from the opposite shore presented a 
most animated and variegated appearance. The wharf or 
front street was in process of formation, improved in some 
parts and occupied by steamboats in others, while many new 
stores and warehouses were being erected on the sites of those 
stupendous ledges that but the year before formed the garden 
fence ( by their perpendicular [^fronts ) of the old possessors' 
estate. 

As yet no steamboat had been built in St, Louis, and the 
merchants were dependent on the Ohio river steamboats for 
transportation of the immense quantity of goods distributed 
by them over the vast space they supplied Avith nearly every 
article of merchandise consumed by the inhabitants or used in 
traffic with them. The movements of the large number of 
boats owned at so many different points naturally collected a 
large number of the most enterprising and energetic business 
men about this central point of receipt and distribution, and 
made them acquainted with the advantages St. Louis enjoyed 
over any other place on the Mississippi for mercantile trans- 
actions. 

To this circumstance may be attributed the establishment of 
such a large number of enterprising business men in St. Louis 
from such distant and varied localities about that time, who 
have since given St. Louis such eclat and character abroad for 
the honor, promptitude and integrity of her merchants and 
business men that no city on the continent enjoys a fairer 
fame. This influx of enterprising citizens induced the city 
authorities to erect the Broadway market to accommodate the 
citizens of the northern part of the city, which at length 
attracted more persons about it than could be accommodated, 
and compelled its removal to give space for the immense mer- 
cantile transactions that crowded Broadway. The Missouri 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



105 



Insurance Company was also incorporated this year, with a 
capital of $100,000. The interests of St. Lonis and Missouri 
have always been so intimately connected with those of Illi- 
nois that any circumstance that disturbs one affects the other, 
and this was never more clearly evinced than in 1831 during 
the troubles of the people of Illinois with the Sac and Fox 
Indians, who had so threatened them that they had suddenly 
abandoned their homes and fled for safety to places where 
their families were in danger of suffering for food, which was 
no sooner known in St. Louis than prompt measures were 
taken for their relief by a mass meeting of the citizens being 
called, at which Archibald Gamble, Esq., presided, and George 
K. McGunnegle acted as secretary. 

Hon. Henry S. Geyer addressed the meeting and moved for 
the appointment of a committee of thirteen to collect subscrip- 
tions, which was carried by acclamation, and the names of the 
committee are a sufficient index of the manner in which their 
duties were performed. They were — Daniel D. Page, John 
Kerr, Henry King, Peter Powell, Adam S. Mills, Geo. Sproule, 
Wm. Finney, Thomas Cohen, John Smith, Joshua B. Brant, 
A, L. Johnson, J. W. Reed and John H. Gay. This warlike 
demonstration on the part of the Indians, which agitated the 
people of Illinois and Missouri more or less during two sum- 
mers, was incited by a Sac warrior named Macuta Milkacatah 
(interpreted Black Hawk), born in 1767, and at that time sixty- 
four years of age, and well known among all Indians as an 
inveterate enemy to the people of the United States and a 
friend to the British, from whom he had been receiving 
presents for the last forty years. He had participated in many 
battles, and was deservedly distinguished for his merciful and 
generous character toward the weak and feeble as well as 
women and children. The removal of all the disposable 
United States troops from Jefferson Barracks to expel this 
redoubtable chieftain and his adherents from the lands they 
had sold in 1804 naturally created the same excitement in Mis- 
souri that it did in Illinois, and to some extent suspended emi- 
gration to the northern part of the State and greatly reduced 
the production of lead in the vicinity of Galena, and to that 
extent, for the time being, seemed to be a disadvantage to St. 

Louis and all parts of the State. After Black Hawk had vio- 
8 



lo6 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

lated tlie treaty made witli Gen. Gaines and Gov. Reynolds, 
the trade of St. Louis seemed not to be affected b}^ the war, as 
the prompt action of Gen. Atkinson and Gov. Rejmolds 
demonstrated that a period would be put to it as soon as the 
savage could be overtaken, as they had no means to continue 
the war, if such folly and murders could bear that name. The 
total defeat and dispersion of his band at the Bad Axe was 
undoubtedly the last fighting that will ever be done with 
Indians on the east of the Mississippi river, ^as they all have 
now removed to lands of great longitude on the western side of 
the river and remote from foreign iniiuence. The army had 
returned to their quarters at Jefferson Barracks but a very 
short time, when all thoughts of the campaign were buried in 
contemplation of the predicted distress and ruin that was to 
fall on the whole community by reason of President Jackson 
vetoing, on the 10th of July, 1832, an act of Congress recharter- 
ing the United States Bank. An excitement, without violence, 
followed that has never had a parallel in St. Louis, and pro- 
duced more animated discussions throughout the State than 
any subject which has agitated the public mind since the set- 
tlement of the country. A meeting of the citizens of the 
county and city was at once called at the court house to 
express their disapproval of the action of the President. A 
large meeting was convened, and among those who partici- 
pated in the j)roceedings were some who had been his most sin- 
cere friends and supporters for many j^ears. Dr. William Carr 
Lane was called to preside, and James L. Murray, Esq., acted 
as secretary. A committee was appointed to draft resolutions 
expressive of the sense of the meeting on the subject. Messrs. 
Edward Bates, Pierre Chouteau, Jr., George Collier, Thornton 
Grimsley, Henry S. Geyer and Nathan Ranney were appointed 
that committee, who reported resolutions highly commend- 
atory of the action of the bank officers, but censurable of the 
action of the President. To add weight to the action of the 
committee and the meeting, Dr. George W. Call and Messrs. 
Frederick Hyatt, Matthew Kerr, Asa Wilgus, Thomas Cohen 
and Richard H. McGill expressed their views and exj^erience in 
financial affairs in formal addresses. These extraordinary pro- 
ceedings attracted due notice, and soon called forth a counter- 
action on the part of the President's friende in St. Louis, who 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 107 

assembled soon after in the city hall and called Dr. Samnel 
Merry to act as President of the meeting, and elected Absalom 
Link as Vice-President, and appointed -Gen. William Milbnrn 
to act as Secretary. Col. ^George F. Strother addressed the 
meeting in a very Incid, spirited and eloquent manner, and 
when it was resolved to apj)oint a committee to draft resolu- 
tions expressive of the sense of the meeting in regard to the 
President's action in relation to the rechartering the United 
States Bank, Messrs. Edward Dobyns, John Shade, James 
C. Lynch, Lewellan Brown, B. AV. Ayers, John H. Baldwin 
and Philip Taylor were appointed the committee, who reported 
a series of resolutions fully sustaining the President's course 
and action in relation to that institution, which were adopted. 

The canvass of the quadrennial election had already been in 
progress several months. The candidates for Governor were 
Dr. John Bull, Daniel Dunklin, John Smith and Stephen Dor- 
ris, the two former of whom were much the most prominent, 
and received each a very flattering vote. Dr. Bull received 
8,035 votes and Mr. Dunklin 9,121, and was elected — tlie aggre- 
gate vote for Governor being 17,536. Lilburn W. Boggs was 
elected Lieutenant Governor. 

Wm. H. Ashley was elected representative in Congress, over 
Robert W. Wells, by a majority of 662 votes in an aggre- 
gate vote of 18,334 in the State, according to the returns of the 
thirty-three counties into which the State was then divided. 

The United States census of 1830 was unsatisfactory to many 
persons, as the total number of inhabitants amounted to only 
140,452. The census taken by the State authority in 1832, 
however, satisfied the malcontents that the enumeration must 
have been correct, as, after a lapse of two j^ears, it had only 
reached 172,276 in 1832, with only a slight impediment to immi- 
gration by the Indian war in Illinois. 

Immediately after the war Gen. Atkinson returned to St. 
Louis and was tendered a public dinner by the citizens, but 
his public duties compelled him to decline for want of time, 
which he did in a most thankful and appropriate manner. 
Soon after the Asiatic cholera made its appearance in several^ 
places in the United States and created great alarm. The' 
danger at length roused. the people of St. Louis and Missouri, 
and put them to preparing to meet the affliction with fortitude 



lOS HISTORY OF ST. LOt/IS AND W'lSSOUKr. 

and becoming Christian resignation. A 'day of fasting and 
prayer for exemption from the scourge was appointed, and 
more piously observed than any day has been since. Yet the 
dreaded pestilence lingered but little. A portion of the army 
had been forwarded by the la^es to oppose the Indians, and 
were attacked by the disease and delayed^ while others pro- 
ceeded to Jeflferson Barracks, as the Indian war had termin- 
ated, and here the first case on the west side of the Mississippi 
made its appearance. All communication with the city was 
for a short time suspended, until September 25th, when two 
well defined cases occurred in the city, and developed the fact 
that walls and distance are no certain barriers against cholera. 
It had invaded the city and many persons were laboring under 
the premonitory symptoms of the disease, most of whom sank 
under it soon after. 

The sudden deaths of a few struck others with gloom and 
despair. Added to these, a cool, cloudy state of the weather 
lent its influence to depress the energy of the laboring classes, 
and brought them in groups about the street corners to relate 
the tales of woe they had gathered, which added intensity to the 
excitement then prevailing. 

Under such depressing circumstances all business lan- 
guished or was suspended, and many persons left the city for 
a time. It is worthy of remark that those who pursued their 
usual avocations and made no change in clothing or diet were 
least afi'ected, and seldom failed of recovery if attacked, while 
those who fled or stood idle sutfered both in body and mind, 
and more frequently perished. 

The pestilence destroyed about four per cent, of the population 
of the city, numbering 7,000, during the five weeks of its con- 
tinuance. About the close of autumn Gen. Atkinson returned 
:to Jefferson Barracks, and the prominent citizens of St. Louis 
renewed their solicitation of his acceptance of a public dinner 
at their hands, since he had again returned among them. 

General Atkinson expressed the most profound consideration 
of the high complimjent paid him by the people of St. Louis, 
but stated that the late epidemic had destroyed many of his 
dear comrades in atrms, gind his sympathy for them and 
their relatives disqualified him from participating in the offered 
tribute. He begged to decline the honor, and tendered his 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



109 



most heart-felt thanks for the manifestation of their confidence 
and kindness. 

Hon. Wm. C. Carr at that time occupied the bench of the 
St. Louis Circuit Court, and had been a resident of the county 
from near the time of its transfer to the United States. He 
was well-known as a gentleman of good legal acquirements, 
and a most useful and exemplary member of society ; 
yet there were many persons in the community who, from 
political, interested or other motives, desired to have him 
removed, and for this purpose contrived to have charges and 
specifications, fourteen in number, preferred against him 
before the Legislature, where his whole judicial conduct on 
the bench was carefully examined before both branches of that 
body. 

The examination was lengthy, and related mostly to small 
things, which showed a very limited state of good feeling 
between the bench and the bar, amounting nearly to contempt 
in many instances for each other. 

After a full investigation of all the charges and specifica- 
tions, the Judge was acquitted. He, however, resigned soon 
after and retired to private life. 



CHAPTER XV. 

Two Representatwes in Congress Elected — The State Enlarged 
'by Act of Congress — How it was Done — Arrival of the Sisters 
of Charity and Founding of their Hospital — The Legis- 
lature Authorizes the Sale of the St. Louis Commons hy the 
City Council, and this enahles the Public ScJiools to com- 
mence operations. 

The terms of ofiice of President Andrew Jackson and Vice- 
President John C. Calhoun were drawing near a close, and 
from many incidents and indications that had come to light in 
Missouri it was very evident those two names would not appear 
again together on the Democratic ticket in the State. 

The popularity of President Jackson, although somewhat 



no HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

lessened hy his discord with the Vice-President and his 
opposition to tlie rechartering of the United States Bank, was 
sufficiently jipparent to insure him the Presidential vote of 
Missouri for his re-election. 

At this crisis Vice-President Calhoun was elected a United 
States Senator by the Legislature of his own State, in conse- 
quence of which he resigned the office of Vice-President and 
left that to be filled by some other person whose political views 
comported with the whole ptart}^. 

The act of Congress making the apportionment of representa- 
tion according to the census of 1830 was passed May 22d, 1832, 
which gave the State of Missomi an additional rej)resentative 
in Congress and increased the number of her Presidential 
votes to four in the electoral college. 

Governor John Miller, therefore, in pursuance of an act of 
the Legislature passed for that purpose, divided the State into 
four electoral districts and issued his proclamation defining 
each district, and the Presidential electors were chosen in 
the districts to which they severally belonged upon very 
clearly defined party tickets. On the Whig ticket were the 
names of Henry Clay, of Kentucky, for President, and John 
Sergeant, of Pennsylvania, for Vice-President. On the Demo- 
cratic ticket were Andrew Jackson, of Tennessee, for President, 
and Martin Van Buren, of New York, for Vice-President. 

The political views of parties were as well known at that period 
in Missouri as they ever have been since. One party was in 
favor of the rechartering of the United States Bank and a pro- 
tective tariff. The other was opi^osed to both of these meas- 
ures, and each voter cast his ballot as if it affected those 
objects only. 

The aggregate Democratic vote was overwhelming in each 
of the districts, and the four Presidential votes of Missouri 
were given to Andrew Jackson for President and to Martin 
Van Bureu for Vice-President, who were both elected and 
entered on the discharge of the duties of their respective offices 
at the commencement of the twenty-third congressional term, 
on the 4tli of March, 1833. 

Missouri was represented in that Congress in the Senate by 
Thomas H. Benton and Lewis F. Linn, and in the. House of 
Representatives by William H. Ashley and John Bull, all 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. Ill 

friends of tlie President and Vice-President and in unison with 
tliem on all the leading measures of the administration, one of 
which was the removal of all the Indians to permanent homes 
west of the Mississippi river and the white settlements. In 
this measure Missouri was deeply interested, as that part of 
the State included in a triangle beyond the old west line of the 
State and the Missouri river was free Indian territory, very 
fertile and desirable, but an eyesore and nuisance in possession 
of savages- 

This triangle was desirable for Missouri to j)ossess, and she 
obtained it in the most honorable and peaceful manner, through 
the profound statesmanship and wisdom of those four patriots 
and their personal friends a few years later, aided b}' their 
suavity, management and noiseless arguments with their 
political and personal friends in Congress. 

This triangle includes seven of the large, fertile counties of 
the State which are unsurpassed in point of health, location or 
beauty, and adds much to the symmetry of the State and its 
local advantages. 

The performance of that important labor has had no parallel 
in Missouri, or in any of the States of the Federal Union, and 
can never be overlooked by the critical historian or politician, 
as it embraced two propositions either generally supposed to 
be insurmountable and out of reach of the ear of Congress so 
recently relieved from the thunders of Missouri knocking at 
its doors for admittance into the Union. One was to enlarge 
the area of slavery by adding to it free territory, and tlius at 
once alter the Missouri Compromise line, or annul it entirely. 
The other was to remove Indians from lands they had just 
received for perpetual homes in exchange for tlieir former 
possessions and to accommodate them with others in a more 
distant region, where they would have no river like the Mis- 
souri to shield their feeble remnant from the incursions oi their 
more powerful neighbors. 

Notwithstanding the unpropitious prospect in view, these 
indefatigable statesmen applied themselves to the work, and, 
after a most persistent course of more than three years' duration, 
finally succeeded in enlarging the largest State in the Union 
and placing some of the fairest lands of the West in the 
hands of the most skillful husbandmen with a quietness that 



X 



112 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

« 

elicited the admiration of both the friends and opponents of 
tlie measure, and freed Missouri from the incubus of Indian 
neighbors by the act of the Senate in 1836 confirming the Indian 
treaty. 

While these things were being transacted abroad the pro- 
gress of events witliin the State were of the most encouraging 
and flattering kind. The last annual report of the AVharf- 
master, for 1831, showed that sixty different steamboats visited 
the harbor during the year, making 532 different entries, 
with an aggregate tonnage of 7,769 tons. The city revenue 
derived from wharfage on the same amounted to $2,167. 

In the spring of 1833 Major Phillips and Dr. William Carr 
Lane erected the Eagle Powder Mills, which became deservedly 
celebrated for their production, and continued in operation two 
years, when they were destroyed by an accidental explosion, 
and no other has since been erected in the vicinity of the city. 

Dr. Samuel Merry was elected Mayor of the city at the April 
election, but the City Council refused to qualify him, as he 
held the office of Receiver of Public Moneys of the United 
States, and was therefore ineligible, and he instituted suit to 
compel the Council to compliance. The court, however, sus- 
tained the Council and adjudged him to pay the costs. An 
election for Mayor Avas then ordered, at which John W. John- 
son was elected, and, being re-elected in 1834, continued in 
office until April, 1835. 

^ The cholera re-appeared in 1833, in milder form than in the 
preceding year, but as it continued several months longer, 
it was as detrimental on the whole to the mercantile interests 
as in the former year. It seemed, also, to check immigration 
and enterprise, and cast a kind of gloom over melancholy 
minds and rendered their energies feeble and inert. 

On the 22d of September of this year, 1833, the Secretary of 
the Treasury, in accordance with the directions of the Presi- 
dent, removed the deposits of the United States from the United 
States Bank to certain State Banks, and was sustained in it by 
the members of Congress from Missouri and a large majority 
of their constituents, whose views on this subject were known 
to accord with theirs. 

The society of the Sisters of Charity, which was founded in 
Paris, in 16i6, by St. Vincent of Paul, had extended its reputa- 



HISTORY OF ST, LOUIS AND MISSOURI. II3 

tion for pious acts of mercy tlirougliont the different kingdoms of 
Europe and into more distant parts of the world. At length, in 
1832, their fame had reached St. Louis and enlisted that well 
known philanthropist, the late John MuUanphy, among their 
most powerful supporters and contributors, who, aided "by the 
Catholic Bishop of St. Louis Diocese, invited a colony of 
them to locate a hospital in the city of St. Louis, and offered 
them a site for that purpose on the south side of Spruce street, 
between Third and Fourth streets. They accepted it soon 
after and put it in operation, with limited numbers for want of 
room, but to the great relief of many afflicted invalids. To 
aid them in the erection of suitable buildings for the accommo- 
dation of their numerous patients the Legislature of Missouri 
authorized a lottery, by which the sum of ten thousand dollars 
was raised, which was most economically expended in erecting 
portions of those substantial buildings known as the Sisters' 
Hospital, to which they have added many others. 

This institution has been in constant action every day since 
it opened, with the quietude, regularity and beneficence of the 
sun, and has now attained such a fixedness in the minds of 
St. Louisans that they would as soon entertain the thought of 
being bereft of the one as the other. 

The history of their merciful doings in St. Louis would fill 
a volume ; and that all their labors and watchings were bestowed 
upon strangers and no record kept of the names of those that 
performed them, or any reward hoped for or expected in this 
world, makes the institution revered by the good and avoided 
by the bad as holy ground. 

Strange as it may appear to people of this day, there had 
been no scales for weighing hay, coal or cattle in St. Louis 
until the spring of 1833, when the City Council established one 
near the southeast corner of the market, on Front street. At this 
one point all heavy weighing was done for several yeavs after 
it was established, and no where else in the city. Coal was 
sold by the bushel before that time, measured in wagon-beds 
by a qualified person, who generally gave as good satisfaction 
as our weighers do at this day. Hay was sold by the load, 
as the parties interested agreed. 

The public lands near the city had nearly all been sold, and 
the amount of cash withdrawn from circulation through the land 



^ 



I 14 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

office was small ; but the immense immigration to the State 
caused large sums to be put in circulation in payment to indi- 
viduals for new homes, and thus great animation was visible 
in all departments of business and money plentiful. 

The growth of the city was steady and rapid, and the current 
of business swelling with astonishing acquisitions. This pros- 
perity is evinced by the Wharfmaster's report of 1835 being 
more than double that of 1831. The number of boats was, in 
1835, exclusive of barges, 121 ; aggregate tonnage, 15,470 tons ; 
803 entries, and $4,573 wharfage collected. 

Over all tliis rising greatness hung a dark curtain. St. Louis 
had no Public Schools. The streets swarmed with idle children 
and public school lands laid unoccupied in the most populous 
parts of the city; but a luminous day was nearat hand that 
has quite dispelled the gloomy prospect. In March of this year 
the Legislature authorized the people of St. Louis — as it was 
bounded in 1812 — who owned lots to authorize the Cit}^ Council 
to sell the town Commons, a tract of about two thousand acres of 
most beautiful grounds, and to appropriate nine-tenths to the 
improvement of the streets of the city and one-tenth to the 
support of Public Schools. This trifling sum, however, raised 
the curtain and laid the foundation for the first Public Schools 
of St. Louis, by which the whole population of the city was 
enlightened in regard to the advantages of a well regulated 
Public School S3^stem and induced to vote a tax on themselves 
to establish the present Public Schools. 

It may be viewed as a digression from the general history 
to pursue this subject here, but when the whole State is seen 
adopting, or rather practicing, as far as possible, the same sys- 
tem, no more suitable occasion than the present may occur to 
narrate its first movements and entire success in the vity. Two 
small two-story brick houses were erected from the proceeds 
of the Commons' sale and a small amount collected from rents of 
lots, and a male and female school opened in each of them in 
1837. It was soon found that those establishments, although 
large enough for ordinary common country schools, were quite 
inadequate for the accommodation of the number of pupils in 
a city like St. Louis, and the Legislature was applied to for aid. 
An act was thereupon passed tantamount to an act to tax 
themselves if a majority voted in favor of it. This was 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. I15 

effected, and from tliat time tlie Board of Directors of tlie St. 
Louis Public Scliools (wlio serve without pay) liave brought the 
schools to the high position they occupy to-day — the pride of 
the city, its monument of wisdom, its example for posterity, 
its unspeakable boon to the living. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

Rise and Progress of ParocTiial and other Schools and Colleges. 

The Public Schools are not the only places that the people 
of St. Louis can point to with pride as seats of learning, where 
all the sciences are taught with as much accuracy and perfection 
as those instituted, endowed or supported by the laws of the 
State. Many of the most magnificent buildings of the city are 
seats of learning — used only for that purpose — to which the State 
has never contributed one dollar, and yet they are filled to 
overflowing with pupils who will compare favorably with those 
of our best public schools or colleges. 

The most generally attended are the Catholic Parochial 
schools, male and female ; the schools of the Christian Brothers, 
the schools of the Sisters of Charity or Orphans' Schools, the 
Academies of the Visitation and of the Sacred Heart, and the 
St. Louis University. In most of these institutions the patrons 
pay a fair fee if they are able ; if not able to pay, the pupils 
are taught gratuitously, and there are many in this condition. 
To these should be added the Washington University and the 
Mary Female Institute, both under the patronage and tuition 
of Protestants of the first class of scholarship, well patronized 
and enjoying wide-spread fame. Thus the people of St. Louis 
have provided themselves with facilities for educating the rising 
generation equal to those of any city on the American continent, 
and have the most flattering prospects for further progress 
before them. None of these schools have required any religious 
qualifications of students, but a respectful conformity to rules of 
order during the time devoted to religious exercises is required 
in all of them. Two medical schools or colleges have been 



Il6 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

established in St. Louis, chiefly by private munificence and 
enterprise, in which many young gentlemen have been educated 
who now adorn their profession in the vast regions of the West, 
and have given McDowell's and Pope's Colleges deserved 
celebrit}^ in the medical world, and placed the names of their 
founders high in the temple of fame as benefactors to mankind 
and profound masters of surgery and physic. 

The Legislature, at the request of the founders, has given 
these two seats of learning other names and regulations, but 
the public has become so long accustomed to calling the insti- 
tutions after the names of their founders that any other names 
would be unrecognized by St. Louisans if used in the city. 
The history of St. Louis can not be written without the name 
of Joseph N. McDowell being mentioned among its most 
enlightened and generous benefactors, for the j^ains he had 
taken to amuse, instruct and gratify them. He had collected 
a very valuable and rare museum some time previous to his 
death and donated it to the city of St. Louis, which was de- 
stroyed during the late civil war in the room the city used for 
its preservation. 

These institutions have risen in such quietude and progressed 
with such stillness and regularity that it is difficult to determine 
precisely at what time many of them went into use and opera- 
tion. They seem to have risen up when they could no longer 
be dispensed with, and are kept in operation by the force of 
necessity and practical usefulness. The commercial class of 
colleges, with pupils of riper years and without the stately 
edifices that attract the gaze of the wondering crowd, has had 
great influence and much success in forming the character of 
the business men of St. Louis and others spread over the 
Southern States and Territories. 

They, like the medical colleges, have had a little of the 
legislative breeze passed gently over some of them, but all the 
nourishment and gilding they have enjoyed has been derived 
from the indefatigable exertions of the able professors who 
conducted them and their patrons. 

Private enterprise has kept open many schools in difi'erent 
parts of the city, in diff"erent languages and in different sciences, 
so that no one has thirsted for knowledge who has had the 
means of making a reasonable remuneration. Thus, painting, 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. II7 

drawing, dancing, vocal and instrumental music, telegraphing, 
photographing and other useful arts have had as skillful pro- 
fessors as were to be found in any of our American cities, and 
have been as well patronized, so that Missourians, when abroad 
on the Eastern continent, have found no difficulty in being 
acknowledged by the most learned men of the world as 
their equals, and obtaining from them all the knowledge they 
are able to impart, either of their own country or the distant 
regions beyond those they may have visited. These improve- 
ments, accumulations and acquisitions have all been made in 
this century, and mostly within forty years. There is not one 
stone lying upon another in the way of improvement that has 
not been placed there within the recollection of some of the 
persons who pass it daily. 



CHAPTERXVII. 

Destruction of the Old Cathedral hy Fire — The First Rail- 
road CowGention in St. Louis — TJie Murder of Deputy- 
Sheriff Hammond and Burning of the Murderer hy the Cit- 
izens — The Texan War, in which some Missourians Parti- 
cipated. 

The year 1835 opened with cheering prospects for the growth 
and prosperity of St. Louis. The sale of the Commons it was 
fondly hoped would produce a sum sufficient to improve some 
of the principal streets leading into the heart of the city and 
aid the Public Schools to commence operations. 

The Central Fire Company was organized and equipped with 
a good engine — with human power ; the only one in use at that 
day for extinguishing fires — and was soon called forth to test 
its utmost capacity on two of the largest buildings of the city. 

The first was the old, unfinished, brick Cathedral, one hun- 
dred and thirty-five feet in depth and forty feet in front, with 
walls twenty-five feet in height, used as a wholesale crockery 
warehouse by the late Ringrose D. Watson, who had a very 
extensive stock of goods in it — fortunately well insured. 



Il8 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

The second was a livery stable, about fifty feet front by one 
hundred feet in depth, built entirely of wood, well filled with 
hay and grain, and having about one hundred horses in it, with 
carriages and furniture, owned by the late John Calvert, and 
standing about twenty feet westward from the old Cathedral, 
on Market street, where Concert Hall now stands. 

Both these buildings were destroyed in the heart of the city, 
with about fifty horses and much other valuable property ; but 
the lesson it taught the citizens, who were nearly all present at 
the fire, has probably been more beneficial to the growth of the 
city than that property ever could have been if allowed to 
occupy that valuable central locality. 

This great conflagration, for such it was then considered, 
commenced in the stable about eleven o'clock on the night of 
the first Monday in April, 1835, just as the counting of the 
votes closed in the three wards ol the city that showed the 
election of Hon. John F. Darby as Mayor of the city of St. 
Louis. 

A young, efficient, enterprising and energetic man then took 
the reins of the city government — one who had become identi- 
fied with the interests of the city, knew its wants and was Avill- 
ing to devote himself to the promotion of its rising greatness, 
and who was re-elected the three folloAving years. 

Several great interests then engaged the attention of the peo- 
ple of St. Louis and incited them to action. The first was the 
Great National Road being built across the Union, which 
would pass through the great western cities ; and as its location 
had arrived at a point where a divergence from a line leading 
directly to St, Louis might greatly affect its interests, the young 
Mayor lost no time in delay, but promptly convened the people 
b}^ proclamation to memorialize Congress to construct the road 
through St. Louis in its extension to Jefferson City and regions 
further west. 

The meeting convened according to proclamation, at which 
the Mayor presided and Geo. K. McGunnegle acted as Secre- 
tary, when a memorial was numerously signed and forwarded 
to Congress. 

There had been great excitement in some of the neighboring 
cities in consequence of the lawless conduct of gamblers, loaf- 
ers and vagabonds ; and to prevent their making a similar com- 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. II9 

motion in this city by congregating or locating in the vicinity, 
early action was taken "by the Mayor's court to rid the city of 
idlers and corrupters of the public morals, and tlius avoid the 
high-handed measures which had been adoi)ted in some of 
the neighboring cities to relieve themselves from the bane- 
ful presence of such unworthy people. 

The punishment of a few of the most prominent among them, 
by the sentence of the Mayor to imprisonment, so intimidated 
the fraternity that they gave him a wide held to exercise his 
authority over, so that, by the assistance of the city marshal 
and his deputy, the city enjoyed good order during his admin- 
istration, at small cost. 

The utility of Railroads had so far developed itself that the 
enterprising citizens of Missouri determined in the early part 
of the year to call a convention to consider wliat it behooved 
Missouri to do with the new and wonder working system of 
conveyance, and, accordingly, a convention met on the 20tli 
of April, 1835, at the court house in St. Louis, composed of 
sixt3^-four members from eleven of the most populous counties 
of the State. 

The Convention was organized by calling Dr. Samuel Merry 
to the chair and appointing George K. McGunnegle Secretary, 
for organization, when Harry Smith was elected President, 
James H. Riff Yice-president,"^ and G. H. McGunnegle Secre- 
tary. After discussing the subject that had brought such a 
large number of the prominent citizens of the State together, 
they examined the feasibility of applying the new system ben- 
eficially to transportation on two routes, one to Bellevue Val- 
ley, via Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob ; the other to Fayette, 
in Howard county. 

Great unanimity and kind feeling prevailed among the dele- 
gates during the session, and the St. Louis delegation put a 
seal on the whole proceedings by giving a festive dinner to the 
members of the Convention at the National Hotel, now St. Clair 
Hotel, at the corner of Market and Third streets, which added 
zest and eclat to the harmonious proceedings of the Con- 
vention. 

This social entertainment was presided over by Hon. John 
F. Darby, Mayor of the city, assisted by seven Vice-presidents, 
viz. : Hon. Hugh O'Neil, Gen. John Ruland, Thomas Cohen, 



I20 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

Esq., Gen. AYilliam Milbiirn, Beverly Allen, Esq., Col. J. W. 
Johnson and William G. Pettis, Esq. Col. Charles Keemle 
acted as Secretary. 

These eight last named gentlemen are all removed " to the 
great city of the dead," but the hopes they entertained have 
been already realized and more extended projects executed — 
based on their initiatory labors — than their minds had been led 
to contemplate in all their kaleidoscopic anticipations at 
that day. 

The County Court, considering the importance of the move- 
ment, appropriated two thousand dollars to defray the expen- 
ses of the Convention, and the whole community manifested 
the deep interest they felt in this novel improvement by avail- 
ing themselves of every opportunity to acquire information in 
relation to it. 

At this period the Mississippi river passed the city in two 
streams of about equal size, being divided by Bloody Island, 
now part of East St. Louis. 

This was an alarming circumstance to owners of real estate 
in St. Louis, as the current on the eastern side of the island 
was daily increasing, while that on the western side was daily 
decreasing, and threatening to leave no channel on the west 
side of the island. 

For a city of 15,000 inhabitants, like St. Louis, to be for- 
saken by a river like the Mississippi, may be a grand subject 
to contemplate, but a sad misfortune for the inhabitants to 
suffer. Yet this was allowed to continue a quarter of a cen- 
tury without an effort being made to prevent it. 

The departure of so large a portion of the river from its 
western shore slackened the velocity of the current and 
allowed the muddy water from the Missouri to deposit the 
heavy sand it held in suspension near the shore in front of the 
lower part of the town, where the stream in 1800 was seventy 
feet deep, until it formed a sandbar on which vast quantities 
of flood-wood lodged and defended the accumulations until 
assisted by a growth of willows, cottonwood and sycamores it 
had become in one lifetime an apparently permanent island 
and one of the most unsightly spectacles ever exhibited to the 
people of St. Louis. It was then known as Duncan's Island, 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 121 

and so named from the first occupant who cultivated a small 
portion of it as a cornfield in 1835. 

Its presence in the former deep channel of the river quite 
ruined the navigation along its bank as far as it extended, and 
its rapid growth up stream gave signs that it would eventu- 
ally thrust itself like a wedge between Bloody Island and the 
city, and thus destroy the port entirely. 

It had progressed so far northward that no steamboat could 
land below Market street, and some boats had grounded directly 
in front of and east of the Merchants' Exchange before those 
most interested could be brought to contemplate or see their 
danger and damage. However, when those most interested 
were roused to a sense of their situation, they instructed their 
representatives in Congress to aid in obtaining govermental 
assistance in its removal. The sum of fifteen thousand dollars 
was first appropriated for a preliminary survey and examina- 
tion of the river and harbor, and Major R. Lee, of the U. S. 
Engineer Corps, sent to survey and superintend the work. 
Subsequently the further sum of one hundred thousand dollars 
more was appropriated to finish the work. The latter sum 
was never expended as contemplated by Major Lee's system 
of improvement, as the proprietors of a tract of land laid out 
into town lots on the Illinois shore obtained an injunction against 
Major Lee and prevented the completion of the work, which 
resulted in a change of the system of improvement more satis- 
factory now to all parties than that formed by Major Lee, but 
not executed until many years later. By the latter system 
Bloody Island has become a part of the flourishing city of 
East St. Louis. The Father of Waters now passes between 
the two cities in one undivided stream as it did one hundred 
years ago, and the sand-bar, or Duncan's Island, has been 
washed away or forms a part of the city landing. 

A quadrennial election was to be held in August of this 
year, 1836, at which a Governor and Lieutenant-Glovernor were 
to be elected, and, as was customary with Democrats in the 
days of General Jackson's administration, the leaders of the 
party met on the 8tli day of January, at Jefferson City, and 
nominated candidates for the first ofiices of the State. Lilburn 
"VY. Boggs was nominated for Governor and Franklin Cannon 
for Lieutenant-Governor of Missouri. 
9 



122 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

At a later period tlie Whig party nominated William H. 
Ashley for Governor and James Jones for Lieutenant-Governor. 
All these four candidates were gentlemen of acknowledged 
ability and of spotless fame, and, as far as they were concerned, 
the whole canvass was conducted in the kindest and most quiet 
manner, and the result acquiesced in without the least apparent 
dissatisfaction by the vanquished part37-. For Governor Lilburn 
W. Boggs received 14,815 votes, and was elected. Gen. Wm. H. 
Ashley received 13,057 votes for the same office, which showed 
that 27,872 voters visited the polls at this election. Franklin 
Cannon received 13,492 votes for Lieutenant-Governor, and was 
elected. James Jones received 10,210 votes for that office, and 
53 votes were cast for other candidates for the same office. 

In the summer of this year there arose in St. Louis one of 
the most sudden, violent and tragic excitements that a historian 
has occasion to record, which, from its intensity, produced 
results that horritied the quiet, Christian community in which 
they transpired, and caused the day on which they occurred 
to be made an epoch for a quarter of a century following. 

Mr, William Mull, a deputy constable, had arrested one of 
the hands of a Pittsburg steamboat and was escorting him to 
a Justice's office when they met another hand from the same 
steamboat, named Mcintosh, a negro, who asked the prisoner 
where he was going, and on being answered, Mcintosh said to 
the prisoner, " run away," which the prisoner (who was without 
a coat) attempted to do, but was at once caught by the shirt- 
sleeve and held by Mull, with his arm and hand partly out of it. 
The prisoner told Mcintosh to cut off the sleeve, which Mcin- 
tosh did, and the prisoner escaped. Mull dropped the sleeve 
and arrested the negro, who made no resistance, as a crowd had 
gathered, some of whom accompanied Mull and the negro to 
the Justice's office. The Justice examined the case and required 
bail, which the prisoner was unable to obtain, and was, there- 
fore, ordered to jail on a mittimus delivered to the deputy, Mull, 
who, having no fear of personal danger, took no notice of the 
knife the negro had cut the shirt-sleeve with, and walked with 
his prisoner down Third street from Olive to Chesnut, thence up 
Chesnut to Fourth street, where the crowd that followed them 
thus far dispersed, and Mull, having crossed Fourth street to the 
Court-house block, which was then surrounded with a brick wall, 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 1 23 

met tlie Slieriif s deputy, Mr. Geo. Hammond, who seeing Mull, 
a middle-sized man, about forty years of age, left alone to con- 
duct a large, powerful negro of twenty-six years to jail, kindly 
offered to assist Mm in escorting his charge to the jail, still 
two blocks distant. Mull accepted his assistance, and all three 
were walking on the sidewalk near the northeast corner of the 
Court-house block, with Mull on the right, the negro on his 
left, between him and the wall, and Mr, Hammond a yard or 
two in the rear. 

Francis L. Mcintosh, the negro, who had been sullen and 
silent until then, said (turning partly back and addressing Mr. 
Hammond) : " What can they do to me for cutting off the 
shirt-sleeve?" " I don't know," replied Mr. Hammond, and in 
jest added: "Perhaps hang you." In an instant the negro 
jerked his right arm from the left arm of Mull, and seizing his 
boatman's knife aimed a thrust at Mull's throat, which missed, 
and was repeated, inflicting a terrible wound in Mull's left side. 
In the commencement of the attack on Mr. Mull the Deputy 
Sheriff, Mr. Hammond, seized the negro by the collar and 
pulled him a little back, when he suddenly faced Mr. Ham- 
mond and, being held by him, aimed a blow at that officer's 
throat, entirely severing the arteries of the neck. His blood 
spurted on the Court-house yard wall in a frightful stream as Mr. 
Hammond ran round the northeast corner of the square toward 
his own home, until he fell from loss of blood and expired where 
he fell before the least assistance could be given him. 

The assassin fled, with Mull sadly wounded and in pursuit, 
shouting, " Catch him ! Catch him ! Catch him !" until he fell 
from loss of blood. The citizens in the streets took up the cry 
and continued the pursuit with great energy and success, as 
some of those who had heard of the flrst offense at the Jus- 
tice's office were yet on the street and joined in the pursuit and 
in the hue and cry. The negro, outrun by swift-footed lads and 
headed on the streets by many men, attempted concealment in 
a garden, and was finally captured there, from whence he was 
taken and committed to jail by the properly authorized officers 
of the law. 

■ In the meantime the sad news reached the wife of the mur- 
dered officer, who ran with her four children to the murdered 



124 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

father and husband lying in his blood on the pavement, filling 
the air with their cries and lamentations. 

The news spread widely and swiftly, as the sun w^as setting 
and the crowd increasing. One officer was murdered, and 
another said to be mortally wounded in the discharge of his 
duty, and his wife and children in nearly the same distress as 
the other. 

Reason gave place to rage and sym^Dathy to vengeance in 
view of the atrocity of the crime and wide spread distress his 
wickedness had occasioned without the least possible prov- 
ocation. 

The crowd, constantly increasing, seemed incited b}^ the 
Furies and cried " Hang him ! hang him ! " and began to move 
with shouts toward the jail, when the sentence was changed to 
"Burn him! burn him! " and it moved with increased speed 
and size to the jail when their phrenzy and terrific demonstra- 
tions so alarmed the jailor that he complied with the threaten- 
ing demands of a countless multitude and gave up the key of 
the cell in which Mcintosh was confined, when he was speedily 
reached and dragged, trembling, to the street amid the yells of 
the exasperated crowd, calling for vengeance on the murderer 
of one of its most prominent and beloved citizens. 

There was no delay but to clear a passage through the crowd 
for those who could reach him, to push, pull and rush him into 
Chesnut street, and along that street to a point near the corner 
of Chesnut and Seventh streets, a few yards north of the pres- 
ent site of the Polytechnic building, where stood a small locust 
tree, to which he was bound with chains preparatory to burn- 
ing him in the most summary manner. 

The wretched culprit, now convinced that he was in the 
hands of both his judges and executioners, who would inflict 
certain death on him, begged to be hung or shot at once, as he 
saw the brush, bark and dry wood from Bobb and Letcher's 
brickyard being placed around him for his destruction. 

Thus far no opposition had been ofi'ered to the overwhelm- 
ing tempest of vengeance without law, but, for the credit of St. 
Louis and the perfection of its history, it should be stated that 
most strenuous opposition, expostulation and entreaties were 
then made to this highhanded, uncommon, illegal and cruel 
proceeding by one person, who, if he had done no other good 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. I 25 

act in Ms life to entitle him to immortality on tlie page of his- 
tory, this action at this crisis should do it. 

Mr. Joseph Charless, a yonng man, son of the founder of the 
Missouri Republican, had returned to his home at the south- 
east corner of Market and Fifth streets, after Mcintosh had 
been committed to jail, when he learned that a crowd had come 
from the jail into the street and were going westwardly. He 
immediately followed and arrived with it at the fatal locust 
tree, and witnessed the hasty preparations for the execution. 

This he determined to oppose, and being a good scholar and 
a pleasant speaker, commenced a harangue to dissuade the 
crowd from this lawless proceeding and to return the murderer 
to the jail to await the due process of law. 

As no attention seemed to be paid to his address he feared 
he had not been heard, as he was of moderate size, and asked 
one of his friends to hold him up in his arms until he could 
make himself better heard and understood by tlie people. 

His friend grasped him below the knees and held him up 
above the crowd while he made one of the most earnest, sensi- 
ble and humane apx3eals to the wise and peaceful judgment of 
the crowd that has ever been delivered to maintain and 
enforce the laws and to dissuade them from their cruel pur- 
pose. 

- In the meantime the impetuous crowd fired the fatal pile 
and stood silent and aghast, while the most piercing cries, 
shrieks and moans of the suffering victim rent the air and 
filled the minds of the beholders with indescribable horror and 
aversion as the miserable victim, writhing in varying contor- 
tions, expiated his terrible crime and ended his mortal sufi'er- 
ings in the flames. 

This unlawful proceeding was not popular on the whole, 
although so far tolerated by the criminal courts that no one 
was prosecuted, being shielded by the old doctrine of " Vox 
populi vox Dei." 

The day of these sad transactions became a kind of epoch 
for the following quarter of a century. 

St. Louis, estimated to contain 15,000 inhabitants in 1836, 
had neither public school, bank, park, theatre or library of its 
own creation for their use, enjoyment or amusement. 

Yet taste, energy and enterprise were not wanting to acquire 



126 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

all these things, and through the exertions of Messrs. N. M. 
Ludlow, E. H. Bebee, H. S. Cox, L. M, Clarke, C. Keemle and 
J. C. Laveille, a lot was purchased on the south-east corner of 
Third and Olive streets, where the Postoffice now stands, sixty 
feet in front and one hundred and sixty feet in depth, upon 
which a well constructed theatre was erected and operated 
for many seasons, until several of the proprietors had either 
died or removed, and the United States purchased it and built 
the present custom house, subtreasury and postoffice on its site. 

The Central Fire Company also purchased a lot and became 
incorporated. They built a fine brick engine house and a splen- 
did hall (in those plain days) over it, which they used for nearly 
thirty years, until steam engines and paid firemen superseded 
them, to their great delight and satisfaction. 

Some of the best men St. Louis was ever proud of have been 
members of the company, and will be remembered through 
this century for their noble deeds and daring at the mighty 
conflagrations which they combated during its active career. 

The State of Texas had revolted from the Mexican Republic 
and was the theatre of a sanguinary war, and about one hun- 
dred enterprising young men from Missouri had gone in the 
preceding year to assist the Texans, who were, many of them, 
their friends and relatives from Missouri and other States. 

This circumstance enlisted the sympathy of Missourians in 
the Texan cause almost as much as the Texans themselves. 
About forty had gone from St. Louis ; Mr. Austin among the 
number, after whom the town of Austin was named. 

The slaughter of the Texans at Goliad, with many smaller 
parties, and the butchery of women and children by the Mexi- 
cans, had quite exasperated the Missourians against them, and 
caused them to desire their destruction. 

The news of the retreat of Gen. Houston in rear of all the 
women and children of Western Texas, for their protection, to 
the swollen stream of San Jacinto, followed by a Mexican army 
threefold more numerous than his own, for their destruction, 
had so excited the news-reading people of St, Louis that they 
awaited the arrival of each steamboat from New Orleans with 
breathless anxiety for many days to learn the sad fate of Sam 
Houston and the Texan women and childi'en exiled from their 
homes by the Mexicans. 



HISTORY or ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI, 1 27 

"Words can not describe tlie joy depicted in every counten- 
ance soon after, from overflowing grateful hearts, when a 
steamboat at length arrived with a passenger from San Jacinto 
standing on the boiler deck as the boat touched the landing, 
yelled out to the crowd on shore, " Sam Houston has whipped 
Santa Anna and got him a prisoner." The mixed crowd tried 
to cheer, but joy and anxiety to hear more and the rush on 
board prevented a united huzza which every one seemed to 
make involuntarily as they rushed on the boat to learn that 
Texas was free, the war ended, both armies gone home, and 
the Mexican President a prisoner, coming through the United 
States. 

No news was ever more joyfully received in Missouri than 
the victory of San Jacinto. It was without alloy, as no Mis- 
sourian had lost his life there. Missourians then felt as 
though they had given life to Texas through Austin, and that 
Tennessee had given it liberty through Crocket and Houston. 

Thus it happened that the most common watchwords among 
Missouri's soldiers in the war with Mexico, ten years later, 
were David Crocket, Sam Houston, Aitstin, San Jacinto, or 
Lone Star, and time has not entirely obliterated their memory 
yet in MissonrL 

Among the polished gentlemen who have graced the social 
circles of St. Louis and Missouri, and left a lasting impress of 
his urbanity, dignity, learning and other virtues, no one has 
distinguished himself more than Hon. James H. Peck, Judge 
of the United States District Court of Missouri, over which he 
presided sixteen of the first years after Missouri formed her 
Constitution, and died on the 1st day of May, 1836. 

He was a gentleman of very fine scholastic attainments, and 
one of those desirous to communicate his knowledge to others. 
He assisted to form the literary Association known as the St. 
Louis Lyceum, in 1831, composed of such members as Hon. 
J. B. C. Lucas, Hon. Henry S. Geyer, Rev. Thomas Horrel, 
Rev. Mr. Davis, Hon. AVilson Primm, Beverly Allen, Dr. Wm. 
Carr Lane, Hon. John F. Darby, John C. Dennis, Hon. Peter 
Ferguson, and others, which continued to flourish until his 
death, since which it has not convened, although its records 
are yet preserved by the Historical Society of St. Louis. 



128 HISTORY OF ST, LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

The Appointment of Hon. Robert W. Wells to tlie Bench of 
the United Slates District Court of Missouri — The Burning 
of the First Steam Flouring Mill in the City — Incorporation 
of the Bank of the State of Missouri — Overthrow of Ren. 
Elijah P. Lovejoy's Printing Press hy a few Indimduals 
under Co%er of Burliness of Night — Organization of Gen. 
Richard Gentry^s Command., their Distant Campaign in 
Florida, and his Honorable Death in the Arms of Victory. 

On the 1st of July the appointment of Hon. Robert W. 
Wells, by President Andrew Jackson to the bench of the 
United States District Court of the State of Missouri (made 
vacant by the death of the'late Hon. James H. Peck) was made 
public in St. Louis, and he entered on the discharge of the 
duties of the office. 

No surprise or laudation at the appointment was expressed 
by the people, as he was a gentleman of spotless fame and 
tine abilities, and had devoted himself to the study of the laws 
of his country rather than the schemes of political aspirants, 
and could enter on the discharge of the duties of the office 
without further preparation or embarrassment. 

The most sanguine expectations of his friends were gratified 
by his successful course of conduct in office, as he applied him- 
self to his own duties and took no part in the exciting elec- 
tions of that year or thereafter. 

The growth of St. Louis seemed to be accelerated this season 
by the subdivision and sales of the Common tracts and of the 
lands divided among the heirs of the late Col. Auguste Chou- 
teau, which allowed the city to expand in a southern direction. 

The enterprise of many persons was also directed to the 
northern part of the city, where great facilities for manufac- 
turing lumber existed, and many persons had made very 
extensive essays at it and other branches of manufacturing 
with great success. 

In short, the j^eople in the northern part of the city began to 
show that they intended to make that an important part of a 
manufacturing city. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 1 29 

Among tliose who are deserving of mention for tlieir enter- 
prise at that time there were none more conspicuous than 
Capt. Martin Tliomas, who erected a large stone steam-mill 
for manufacturing flour, lumber and lead, which excited the 
ambition of his neighbors to undertake other enterprises in 
the vicinity, which resulted in rapidly advancing the improve- 
ment of that part of the city. 

Unfortunately for Captain Thomas and that part of the city, 
after he had it in full operation, on the night of the 10th of 
July, 1836, the whole establishment took fire and was con- 
sumed, with all its contents, without a single dollar of insurance 
upon any part of it or the contents. 

The days of evil tidings in the midst of an electioneering 
canvass were present. A bill had passed the United States 
House of Representatives to build the National Road through 
St. Louis to Jefferson City, and was 'amended in the Senate, 
passed and sent back to the House of Representatives for con- 
currence on the 3d of July, the day of the appointed adjourn- 
ment, when, for want of time, it was not acted on, and has not 
been spoken of since in Congress. 

The same mail that brought this^ unpleasant news also 
broua:ht the sad news of the death of ex-President James Madi- 
son, who died at his country seat in Orange county, Virginia. 

During the political canvass of that year the two parties 
were so nearly equal that they watched every circumstance 
that seemed to atfect either party. In their scru'iny, religious 
papers were examined as well as others. 

There was published at that time in St. Louis a gazette by 
the title of Tlie St. Louis Observer, edited by Elijah P. Love- 
joy, in which several articles had appeared calculated to offend 
a certain class of persons and yet not make the editor amena- 
ble to the law or responsible to a particular individual. 

Late in the night of the 21st of July a party of those persons 
who kept late hours about ale-houses, beer-shops and saloons, 
and possessed but a moderate stock of cash, character or 
interest in the reputation of the city, broke open the publish- 
ing room of the Observer, overthrew the presses, tlirew and 
scattered the types into the street, and separated instanter 
without further violence. The city officers made one or two 
arrests, and one person was tried the next day, who was found 



130 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

not guilty and discliarged. The result, however, of this trial 
convinced the editor that the people of St. Louis would not 
tolerate such publications, and having collected the scattered 
types, he withdrew from the city only, to meet a more fatal 
opposition. 

The progress of the electioneering canvass then moved qiiietly 
on and resulted, as before stated, in the election of the regularly 
.nominated Democratic or Jackson candidates made at the 
caucus January 8, at Jefferson City. 

At the election in August of this year St. Louis county cast 
1,830 votes for Governor, which showed the aggregate voters of 
the county and the claim their numbers gave them on the Post- 
office Department for a daily mail to St. Louis. 

At length it was announced by the mail contractor that from 
and after the 20th of September, 1836, he would deliver a daily 
mail at the St. Louis Postoffice. 

In the issue of the Missouri Republican of the same day it was 
anounced that from that date there would be a daily issue of that 
paper, and it has been continued to the present as then an- 
nounced. It is a part of the history of St. Louis, also, to record 
that one of the persons who assisted to work off the paper on 
that day had then been in the office nine years, and continues in 
it still, and is its principal proprietor in 1870, a period of 43 
years. 

The year 1836 will ever be memorable'with Missourians as the 
year in which she attained her full growth by the addition of the 
Indian Reservation (as mentioned in a former chapter), a tract 
embracing seven of the northwestern counties on the left bank 
of the Missouri river. To divide this into counties must have 
been the most pleasant task that Missouri ever imposed on her 
legislators. It was not a purchase, it was not a trophy ; it was 
a most gracious gift of the most valuable kind. Nothing like 
it has ever been received by any other State. It was the boon 
above all others most desirable to Missourians, and appears to 
have been divided most wisely into counties for convenience 
and improvement. The legislators of the State never met with 
more kindly feelings toward each other, although party lines 
were well delined ; public good, however, was the aim of aU, 
and to that they seemed to give their undivided attention. 

The progress of the National Road westward had been 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 131 

virtually suspended, as if awaiting the experiment of the sys- 
tem of railroads. An effort had already been made in the 
early part of the year to test the views of the wise men of the 
State, and they had been expressed and promulgated in favor 
of the system unanimously. Therefore Mr. George K. McGun- 
negle, who had acted as Secretary to the Railroad Convention 
and was now a member of the Legislature, drafted a bill to 
charter a railroad and introduced it into the Legislature in 
1836, which was the first step in that direction in Missouri. 

The thorough canvass of the State before the election in 
August, and the published result of that election, had so com- 
pletely developed the strength of each party that the approach- 
ing Presidential election in Missouri excited but little interest 
in either party, as it was generally conceded that the candidates 
nominated at Jefferson City on the 8th of January would be 
elected at the election on the 7th of November, 1836. The 
Whig party, however, kept up their party organization and 
polled a respectable minority vote, the result showing George 
F. Bollinger, John Sappington, William Monroe and Abraham 
Byrd duly elected Presidential Electors to cast the votes of the 
State of Missouri on the 6th day of December, 1836. Accord- 
ingly, on the 6tli day of December, they met at Jefierson City 
and voted for Martin Yan Buren for President and Richard M. 
Johnson for Vice-President. 

The Senators of Missouri in Congress were often congratu- 
lated on the happy escape of Missouri from Indian neighbors, 
and the condition of the people of Missouri contrasted with 
the people of Florida, who had been long annoyed by the 
hostile Seminoles. 

Among others was the President elect, a few days before his 
inauguration, to whom Colonel Benton replied : " If the Semi- 
noles had Missourians to deal with their stay would be short 
in Florida." 

Mr. Yan Buren asked if Missourians were preferable to 
regular troops. Mr. Benton gave his reasons for thinking so, 
and the subject was dropped. 

The merchants of St. Louis had enjoyed facilities for the 
transaction of business equal to those afforded b}^ a bank from 
the expiration of the charter of the United States Bank of 
1816 through the agency of the Commercial Bank of Cincinnati, 



132 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

to whom it had transferred its business in St. Louis on its 
dissolution. 

On the first day of February, 1837, the Legislature of Mis- 
souri incorporated " The Bank of the State of Missouri," with 
a capital of five millions of dollars, and on the same day elected 
the following named gentlemen officers of the hunk : John 
Smith, President of the parent bank, and Hugh O'Neil, Samuel 
S. Rayburn, Edward Walsh, Edward Dobyns, William S. Sub- 
lette and John O'Fallon, all of St. Louis, directors. A branch 
was also instituted at Lafayette, and J. J. Lowry was appointed 
President, W. H. Duncan, J. Villey, Wade M. Jackson and 
James Erickson, directors. 

Soon after the passage of the act chartering the State Bank 
another act was passed for the exclusion of all bank agencies 
from the State. 

The Bank of the State of Missouri, with its mighty capital 
of five millions of dollars, commenced operations in a field 
clear of all competitors and backed by the deposits of the 
General Government. It soon became the source of business 
prosperity, but not of reckless extravagance or speculation. 
Its notes were regarded as equal to the coin their faces repre- 
sented, and the directory the standard of moral worth in the 
community in which it acted during its existence as a corpora- 
tion. 

The candidates for President and Vice-President, for whom 
Missouri's electors had voted, were on examination declared 
duly elected, and were inaugurated on March 4, 1837, and, as 
usual on such occasions, the Senators waited a few days to 
confirm the appointments made by the new President, Missouri's 
Senators among the rest. 

When the press of business incident to such an occasion 
had subsided, the President called Senator Benton's attention 
to the remarks he had made in relation to the Florida Indians, 
and asked if Missourians could be induced to travel so far 
and assist in chastising them. Colonel Benton answered : 
" The Missourians will go wherever their services are needed," 
and went immediately to Mr. Joel R. Poinsett, then Secretary 
of War, and urged him to issue an order for raising volunteers 
in Missouri for that purpose. The Secretary being assured of 
a favorable response, issued an order or requisition on the 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. I33 

Governor of Missouri for two regiments of mounted volunteers 
for tlie United States service. 

The first regiment was raised and organized by Gen. Richard 
Gentry, over which he was elected Colonel, John W. Price, 
Lieutenant-Colonel, and Wm. H. Hughes, Major. Four com- 
panies of the second regiment were also raised and organized, 
and attached to the first regiment. 

These troops were presented with a beautiful flag by the 
ladies of Columbia, and marched from that village on the 6th 
day of October, 1837, toward the seat of war. They spent a 
few days at Jeff*erson Barracks, where they were addressed by 
Hon. Thos. H. Benton, and then embarked on steamboats and 
were transported to Jackson Barracks, near New Orleans. Here 
they were embarked on sailing vessels, to be transported to 
Tampa Bay, in Florida. 

On the voj^age they were overtaken by a violent storm and 
several of the vessels stranded. Many horses were lost but no 
lives, and they disembarked on the 15th of November at the 
place of destination. On the 1st of December they received 
orders from Gen. Zachary Taylor, then commanding in Florida, 
to march to Okee-cho-bee lake, in the vicinity of which the 
whole force of the Seminoles was said to have collected, under 
their four most redoubtable leaders, Sam. Jones, Tiger Tail, 
Alligator and Mycanopee, prepared for battle. 

Having reached the Kessima river, the cavalry scouts cap- 
tured several Indians who were guarding grazing stock, by 
which the General learned the Indians were near at hand ; and 
immediately crossing the river, he formed the Missouri volun- 
teers in front and advanced, supporting them at a proper dis- 
tance by the regular army on either flank. 

The Indians appeared to have noticed all the surroundings 
of the place, and commenced the attack at the point affording 
them the best position for prolonging a battle, and continued 
it with a pertinacity they seldom exhibit. 

General Gentry fought on foot, as did all his command, and 
had repulsed the Indians after several hours of severe fighting. 
He was gradually pushing them across a swamp, and had 
nearly reached the dry soil, when a bullet pierced his abdo- 
men, inflicting a fatal wound. He knew its extent, yet he stood 
erect an hour afterward and cheered his men to victory, until 



134 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

at last being compelled to yield, he was borne from tlie figlit 
and expired tlie following night. 

The fall of their leader did not relax the exertions of the 
Missourians. They made good all their Senator had said of 
them, and continued to fight several hours longer, until the 
Indians were entirely vanquished. 

The loss in killed and wounded was one hundred and twelve, 
most of whom were Missourians. 

There being no further service required of the Missourians, 
they were returned to their homes early in 1838, and the name 
and fame of General Gentry placed where it will never perish. 

A pleasing incident was witnessed by the sick and wounded 
Missourians on their journey homeward that deserves a place 
in history, and may be found in the journals of St. Louis of 
that date : 

After the battle of Okeecho-bee General Taylor ordered the 
sick and wounded of his army, in the field-hospital, to be 
removed to Pensacola for their more comfortable accommo- 
dation. 

They were conveyed to Tampa Bay and embarked on board 
a steamboat and arrived near sundown at Pensacola, where the 
most fashionable people had made preparations for a most 
splendid ball in honor of the recent victory ; and the ladies 
were making their toilets, preparing for the soiree, when it was 
announced that the wounded had arrived from the battle field to 
find hospitals among them. 

The ladies, as if by preconcerted aiTangement, at once quit 
their toilets, threw open the doors of their mansions and hast- 
ened with their carriages to the steamboat offering their houses 
for hospitals and themselves as nurses to the sick and 
wounded. 

It is unnecessary to say there was no dancing that evening, 
but a strife to save what of life remained from the hands of the 
savages and the more death-bearing miasma of the swamps of 
Florida. 

When the Missourians were able^to travel, they parted with 
their kind benefactors and returned in small squads to their 
former homes, bearing- in their grateful bosoms a lasting 
remembrance of the kind attentions of the ladies of Pensacola. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 135 



CHAPTER XIX. 

Visit of Hon. Daniel Webster to St. Louis — Death of Hon. 
David Barton^ one of the First United States Senators 
from Missouri. 

Tlie growth of St. Louis during the last four years of the 
administration of President Jackson, from January, 1833, to 
January, 1847, is more readily shown Iby Mr, John Simond's 
Harbor Master's report of those two years than any other 
within reach of the historian, viz. : 



Steamers Engaged. 


Tonnage. 


Entries. 


Wharfage Collected. 


1832— 86 


9.520 


500 


$2,567 


1836 — 144 


19.447 


1.355 


7,138 



There was then no hotel, store or saloon within the city west 
of Fourth street, nor any house more than two stories high. 
In short, there was such a desideratum experienced by travel- 
ers that the citizens felt it their duty to correct it by building 
more ample hotels, and in 1837 laid- the foundation of the Plan- 
ters' House, but amid the financial disorders of the year very 
little progress was made. 

In the early part of the summer of this year the people of 
St. Louis were flattered with the hope that they were to be 
honored b}^ a joint visit of two of the greatest statesmen of the 
age, Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, whose fame was so 
wide-spread that their very names were but synonyms for 
statesmanship and eloquence. 

The friends and admirers of both were so numerous here, 
and their admiration of them so little short of adoration, that it 
excited a kind of frenzy to see and hear them, and to do them 
honor. 

A public meeting was therefore called']to make arrangements 
to receive the distinguished statesmen as became the people 
of a great and polished city. 

The Hon. Robert Wash, Judge of the Supreme Court, was 
called to the chair, and resolutions passed that due honors 
should be paid the distinguished visitors. 

Suitable arrangements were made and committees appointed 
to carry out the resolutions. 



136 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

Agreeably to tlie resolutions adopted by tlie meeting, when 
it was known that the steamboat on which they were expected 
to arrive had passed the mouth of the Ohio, the committee 
proceeded in a steamboat with a number of friends to meet 
them, which they did at a point below Jefferson Barracks, 
and being put on board the Robert Morriss, the boat expected 
to bring both statesmen, they met only Mr. "Webster ; he, how- 
ever, had his family with him, which partially relieved the dis- 
appointment, and the boat proceeded toward the city, where 
was seen displayed from the flagstaffs of all the steamboats in 
port, the court-house and town-house, the national flag, and 
on very many business houses and private mansions a similar 
emblem, to testify the profound respect entertained for the dis- 
tinguished visitors. 

The Robert Morriss passed up the river to near Bremen, to 
give the visitors an outside view of the city and its commercial 
operations, and returned to the landing at the foot of Market 
street, where the guests were welcomed by applauding thous- 
ands, and, on their landing, conducted to the National Hotel, 
now St. Clair Hotel, where they spent several days, and were 
visited by large numbers of the most distinguished citizens, 
who vied with each other to make their stay agreeable. 

In order to testify the appreciation the Western people 
entertained of the Eastern statesman and " expounder of the 
Constitution," and to give all the people a sight of the great 
patriot and orator, the citizens prepared a sumptuous banquet 
(in Western parlance, a barbecue or feast) in the field near the 
spot where Lucas Market now stands, then a beautiful grove 
of timber of natural growth, belonging to Judge J. B. C. Lucas, 
in the middle of the present city. 

It was summer, but a cloud- shady day and pleasant. Colonel 
Charles Keemle, as Marshal of the day, assisted by several 
other gentlemen as deputies, arranged the citizens in a proces- 
sion, preceded by a choice band of music, and escorted Mr. 
Webster to the grove, where General William H. Ashley pre- 
sided as President, and Messrs. Richard Graham, Wm. Carr 
Lane, John B. Sarpy, John Perry, James Clemens, Jr., and Jas. 
Russell as Vice-Presidents. 

There were five thousand persons present, many of whom 
were from the surrounding country, attracted hither by the 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 137 

reputation of tlie great statesmen and a .desire to witness his 
powerful eloquence and gather his political wisdom. 

There was a bounteous repast provided of all that usually 
makes mortals happy, puts them on a par with each other 
and gives zest to happy feelings and festive enjoyment; nor 
were they disappointed in their anticipated feast of reason. 

When all had sufficiently satisfied the cravings of the body, 
the great orator arose amid the acclamations of thousands and 
enchained their rapturous attention for eighty minutes while 
he defined his own political views and pointed out what he 
conceived to be the errors of his opponents. He was frequently 
cheered by the enthusiastic crowd, who in their frenzy seemed 
desirous of bearing him aloft, if not to the skies, at least as 
high as their hands could carry him, and were only restrained 
from attempting it by a desire to have him continue the flood 
from the same fountain. 

As the shades of evening drew near and the labors of the 
day admonished to rest, the orator was escorted to his lodgings 
without the least unhappy circumstance occurring to mar the 
pleasures of the day or lessen its felicity. 

This visit of the American statesman attracted the notice of 
many of the old residents, who had participated in the recep- 
tion of General Lafayette twelve years before, and led them to 
contrast the size and appearance of the city at the two 
periods and the crowds attending the two personages on their 
reception. The number who attended the statesman's banquet 
in 1837 were estimated to outnumber the whole population of 
the city of St. Louis at the time General Lafayette visited them, 
in 1825. 

The financial prospects of St. Louis were never in a more 
flattering and safe condition than at the time of Mr. Webster's 
visit to the West ; but he had scarcely returned homeward when 
one of those financial tempests arose among tlie banks in the 
Eastern States that, like a tornado, overturned the feeble paper 
works of irresponsible institutions and even shook and terrified 
those of the firmest character and induced them to contract the 
extension of their favors for their own preservation, to the utter 
ruin of thousands who had relied on their indulgence and were 
now swept into the vortex of insolvency. 

Fortunately for the people of St. Louis and Missouri, it 



138 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND IMISSOURI. 

occurred at a period when fhe venturesome were waiting for 
the Bank of the State of Missouri to get into full operation, 
and there was no other banking institution allowed to operate 
in the State. Moreover, the old prudent French element had 
not then entirely departed, and the policy of Jackson's admin- 
istration to pay debts rather than make them was popular 
with most of the Board of Directors, who practiced what they 
taught and had thereby kept their friends aloof from the ruin 
that at the time overtook and prostrated thousands in other 
cities. Many persons lost heavily by the general financial 
crash of that yesiv in St. Louis, yet very few mercantile firms 
failed, for in those days one merchant sustained another more 
than at the present time and thus gave themselves a character 
they long enjoyed. 

On the 26th of September, 1837, Hon. David Barton died in 
Cooper county, at the residence of Mr, Gibson. He had been 
long a resident of Missouri, was one of her most distinguished 
statesmen, and presided over the convention that formed the 
Constitution of Missouri in 1820. He was elected a United 
States Senator and was the colleague of Col. Thomas H. Benton, 
having drawn the lot for the four years' term when those two 
gentlemen took their seats in the United States Senate. He 
was re-elected and continued in that office to the 4th of March, 
1831, when Hon. Alexander Buckner became the colleague of 
Senator Benton. Mr. Barton was afterward elected to the 
State Senate from St. Louis county, where he assisted in 
revising the Statutes of Missouri, as authorized b}^ an act of 
the Legislature of 1834-5. He was a gentleman of profound 
learning, legal acquirements and of unquestionable integrity, 
to which, and his own industry and eflTorts, he was alone 
indebted for his great fame and exalted character. 



HISTORY OF ST, LOUIS AND MISSOURI, 1 39 



CHAPTER XX. 

Tlie First Puhlic Scliool Houses Erected in St. Louis — Death 
of Rev. E. P. Lovejoy, Late of St. Louis, at Alton, Ills. — 
Burning of the State House at Jefferson City, 

The current of prosperity liad flown in such a swift and 
steady stream in the eastern United States for such a length of 
time that the people of Missouri appeared to have become 
emulous of imitating them in as many of their financial 
schemes as possible in 1837. 

They had prepared the way for their enterprise as far as it 
could be done on paper, and by legislation at the session of 
1836-7, with charters for railroads, a bank, chamber of com- 
merce, insurance companies, a medical society, a hotel com- 
pany and a gaslight company ; also an act for building the 
Capitol at Jefferson City. 

The population of St. Louis was then only 16,187, and these 
schemes w^ere view^ed as herculean and visionary by many, 
yet they have all been accomplished, and others more exten- 
sive, useful and brilliant. 

The people commenced the year with the most determined 
energy, and nothing they undertook in that year has failed to 
be prosecuted to completion, or is still in full and successful 
growth and progress. 

The first and most noteworthy action of that year was the 
meeting of the St. Louis Public School Board on the 19th of 
January, 1837, which consisted of M. P. Leduc, A. Gamble, A. 
Kerr, John Finney and H. L. Hoffman as directors. 

There had then been no public school in St. Louis, although 
the board was organized in April, 1833. It had accumulated a 
fund of $2,454 45 cash, and held bonds for lots sold amounting 
to $1,165 17 1-2 ; and on this small sum it was determined to 
commence building houses for the use of the public schools, 
which have since come to be regarded as the most useful and 
ornamental edifices in the city. 

The next remarkable occurrence was the launch of the new 
steamboat North St. Louis, from the yard of Thomas & Glenn, 
being the first and most novel thing of the kind, which was 



I40 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

witnessed by about one thousand delighted spectators, on the 
29th day of March of that year, in the northern part of the 
city. 

Soon after, the Gas Light Company, under the superintend- 
ency of M. L. Clarke, S. W. Wilson, J. D. Daggett and J. H. 
Caldwell, commenced the novel and stupendous project of 
lighting the city with gas, which, herculean as it was, they 
accomplished on the 3d of November, 1847, and on that even- 
ing illuminated the city for the first time with gas, to the won- 
der and delight of thousands. 

All the other corporations of about the same date began to 
reap the reward of their labors at a much earlier day, but not 
without a jar by the financial crash of 1837 that shook them 
to their centres at the time of its occurrence. The first notice- 
able sign of the catastrophe was exhibited in St. Louis on the 
22d of May, 1837, by the suspension of specie payments at the 
agency of- the Commercial bank of Cincinnati in St. Louis, and 
the immediate confirmation of the report that all the banks in 
the city of New York had stopped payment on the 10th of May, 
but would receive each other's notes at their counters. A few 
days later President Van Buren's proclamation of May 16, 
1837, convening Congress on the first Monday in September, 
arrived, and by the same mail was received the news of the 
stoppage of specie payments generally in the United States. 
- The news seemed not to agitate Missourians much, as they 
had but little paper money, or, indeed, much of any kind, as 
the payments for homesteads in those days absorbed all idle 
dollars in the United States Land offices ; and the exports were 
furs and lead, and could be but little injured in price if all the 
banks were annihilated and their officers sent to hunting and 
mining. 

Business moved forward as usual, as the Bank of the State 
of Missouri, on the first of June, five days before, had purchased 
all the notes of the people in the Commercial Bank of Cincin- 
nati agency on a credit of two years, and it could thereby 
indulge its friends in the trying crisis without jeopardy, incon- 
venience or loss, as they paid but five per cent, interest. 

Thus Missouri went on as usual without witnessing in her 
borders any great financial distress or ruin, or suspending any 
of her public or private enterprises, or having a person idle in 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI- I4.I 

her streets or shops. A circular liad been received at the St. 
Louis postofiice on the 24th of May, 1837, from the postmaster 
general, forbidding the receipt of anything for postage but 
lawful money of the United States ; hence the term " post- 
office money " (synonym, coin), much used in rustic circles at 
that period. 

On the first Monday of September the twenty-fifth Congress 
of the United States convened, pursuant to President Van 
Buren's proclamation of May 15th, in which Missouri was 
represented in the Senate by Hon. Thomas H. Benton and 
Hon. Lewis F. Linn, and in the House of Representatives by 
Albert G. Harrison and John Miller. 

All of these gentlemen were regarded as friends of the 
administration and relied on to act w4tli it in any emergency 
that might arise in the financial and political strife then exist- 
ing, which was but little less than civil war. 

Missouri then occupied a conspicuous position in the eyes 
of the nation, and St. Louis a favored point to withstand the 
financial tempest that was sweeping over the country. 

The disbursement of public money through the office of 
Cren. Clarke, superintendent of Indian affairs, to pay annuities 
to many tribes of Indians and their agents, placed large sums 
of money in circulation in the city and State. The payment 
of the troops engaged on the frontier and disbursements for 
their supplies and transportation, put other large sums into 
the hands of the people Tvho furnished them. 

Besides these sources, the fur, lead and Santa Fe trade fur- 
nished great sums of specie, and thus saved Missouri from the 
calamities so much complained of in other localities where sus- 
pended banks were numerous. 

The martial pride of Missourians was incited and somewhat 
gratified on being alone called on for volunteers at that time 
to drive the Seminoles out of the swamps of Florida, while oth- 
ers were allowed to stay at home and complain and quarrel 
over paper money and specie circulars. In the meantime their 
friends enjoyed the pleasure of seeing them respond to the 
call with alacrity and perform all the duties assigned them 
with a promptitude and precision that has covered all the 
actors engaged in that distant campaign with never-fading 
glory. 



142 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

The year 1837 was very remarkable for having such a multi- 
plicity of incidents occurring in Missouri in such quick suc- 
cession that news gatherers had but little trouble to find items 
to gratify all appetites for knowledge or novelty, although 
nothing happened to change the current of human affairs very 
materially from its accustomed channel. 

On Saturday, 1st of July, the private stockholdei^s of the 
Bank of the State of Missouri elected G-eorge K. McGunnegle 
and Theodore L. McGill directors, and thus completed the full 
complement of the directory and its entire organization. 

It had previously assumed the functions of a bank by using 
the funds and furniture purchased of the Commercial Bank of 
Cincinnati, through its agencj'' in St. Louis, and thus entered, 
without delay, into full operation and usefulness and issued 
its own notes on the 30th of the same month, and withdrew 
the others. 

The Missouri Republican was issued on the morning of the 
3d of October, 1837, under the firm of Chambers, Harris & 
Knapp, to whom it had been sold by Edward Charless and 
Nathaniel Baseball, who had purchased it of Joseph Charless, 
the founder and publisher of it under the title of Missouri 
Gazette^ in 1808, and continued it under the new name of Mis- 
souri Republican to that date. 

It was the first newspaper ever published on the west bank 
of the Mississippi, and is the only connected record which his- 
torians can refer to with the certainty of obtaining facts on all 
subjects treated of in a public journal, from the day of its first 
issue to the present time, 1870. 

On the same day, and in the same paper, is the announce- 
ment that the St. Louis Theater would open for the first time 
in the new edifice, at the southeast corner of Third and Olive 
streets, under the management of Ludlow & Smith, jDroprietors. 
The enterprise, like everything else attempted in St. Louis, 
was a success, but was forced to give place some years after to 
the more superb edifices for more lucrative employments, and 
thus the churches, theatres, tombs and grave-yards of thalj 
early day, like the mole hills and theatre, have yielded their 
sites to the mammon of commerce among us. 

On the 16th of August of this year Mr. John Shackford, then 
Sergeant-at-arms of the United States Senate, died in St. Louis, 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. I43 

at the residence of his son-in-law, Gen. N"athan Ranney (his 
former partner under the firm of Shackford & Ranney, whole- 
sale grocers, in the early days of St. Louis steamboating, when 
they had the only store of the kind at the present Levee). 

The name of Mr. Shackford can not be omitted in the history 
of St. Louis as one of its most enterprising citizens. In the 
earlier days of commercial enterprise there was no passage 
over the Ohio falls at Louisville by steamboats for most of the 
year. This was a great detriment to the public, and none saw 
or felt it more than Mr. Shackford, and, like a man who attempts 
the improvement of a highway which he is in constant use of, 
he stepped forward and took stock in the Louisville canal, to 
aid the general public and himself. In short, St. Louis was as 
deeply interested in its success as any other city, and Mr., 
Shackford had volunteered his aid ; and being a gentleman of 
indomitable energy and perseverence, he quit his occupation in 
St. Louis to prosecute the completion of the canal with all 
possible dispatch. 

The task was found to be vastly greater than at first esti- 
mated for, and as the United States owned a large quantity of 
the stock, he was obliged to go in person to Washington City 
to obtain further aid. This he effected, and the Louisville 
canal was completed, more through the exertions of Mr. Shack- 
ford than any other person engaged in that gigantic enterprise. 

This made him acquainted with all the members of Con- 
gress, and them with his qualifications; therefore, he was 
elected by the Senate to the oflace he held at his death. No 
panegyrist could add to his reputation as a gentleman and a 
Christian. 

The Hon. John F. Darby, on the 31st of October, 1837, re- 
signed the oflBce of Mayor of the city of St. Louis, and on the 
15th of November, Dr. Wm. Carr Lane was elected to that 
office, and, being twice re-elected, he continued in the office until 
April, 1840. 

It has been recorded in a preceding chapter that the office of 
the St. Louis Observer, edited by Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy, had 
been broken into and the types scattered in the street. It may, 
therefore, interest the reader to learn the sequel of that trans- 
action, as it is somewhat connected with the history of St. 
Louis, and is accordingly given in connection with it. The 



144 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

materials in the oiSice of tlie Obsert^er having been conveyed to 
Alton, Illinois, Mr. Lovejoy commenced issuing tlie Observer as 
before, and probably being unreconciled to the ill treatment 
his press had received in St. Louis, indulged in some remarks 
that brought dissatisfaction to parties in Alton, who effectually 
destroyed the press and materials. 

Mr. Lovejoy having still some means, and being also well 
sustained by friends, soon procured another press and materials, 
and had them stored in Godfrey, Gilman & Co.'s warehouse in 
Alton, preparatory to recommence issuing. 

The destructives and malcontents who had destroyed his first 
press and threatened violence to future attempts in that direc- 
tion, having learned the place of deposit, made preparations to 
demolish the new press, and assembled for that purpose on the 
night of the 8tli of November, 1837, at the warehouse. 

In the meantime Mr. Lovejoy and a few friends had armed 
themselves for the defense of the property, which, however, 
was destroyed by the mob, Mr. Lovejoy killed and his friends 
dispersed, while one of the assailants was also killed and sev- 
eral others wounded in the progress of those violent and 
desperate proceedings. 

The State House in Jefferson City took fire on the night of 
Wednesday, November 17, 1837, and was consumed with all 
the papers in the office of the Secretary of State, the whole of 
the furniture of that office and about one-half of the State 
library, involving a loss that can never be supplied with its 
original richness. The whole of the accumulations of seven- 
teen years in that important office were thus suddenly swept 
away, leaving no trace of bonds or original acts signed by the 
Governors of the State or any officer in the State during the 
time. 

The building was of wood, and was designed to be used as 
the Governor's residence when the Capitol should be completed, 
which was then in progress of construction. 

The fire is supposed to have originated from a brand rolling 
out on the floor from the wood fire, which was without a fender 
in those primeval days of Missouri. 

The cost of the house was twelve thousand dollars, and the 
furniture and library eight thousand more. 

This loss in property that might be replaced received no 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 145 

consideration when contrasted witli tlie public records, "bonds 
and papers destroyed in tlie office of the State department, 
wliicli embraced all made during the gubernatorial adminis- 
trations of Governors McNair, Bates, Miller and Franklin, and 
a part of Governor Bogg's, that could never be restored. 

The historians of Missouri must all rely on other sources of 
information than the State department for facts prior to the 
17th of November, 1837, the date of the conflagration of the 
State House and papers, in all coming time. 



CHAPTER XXI 



Tlie Ice and Frost of 1838— Opening of First PuUic ScJiools 
in St. Louis — Death of Gen. William Clarke, First Gov- 
ernor of the Territory after the Adoption of the Name of 
Missouri — The Mormons Arrive in Missouri and are Ex- 
pelled for Misconduct — The Establishment of the St. Louis 
Criminal Court. 

The political elements of Missouri have never required much 
excitement to put them in motion, and the circumstances that 
existed at the commencement of 1838 oiFered an extended field 
for the display of all the political talent that could be brought 
into action in the ensuing canvass. There v^as plenty of talent 
of the first order in each party and plenty of organs to make 
that talent and the designs of parties know^n and appreciated. 
Those then most vv^idely known and circulated in Missouri as 
lights and guides to parties were the Missouri Republican on 
the part of the Whigs, and the Argus on the part of the Demo- 
crats in St. Louis, and the Missourian, published at Jefferson 
City, also Democratic. 

These occupied the high ground in the political battle field, 
while several other lesser lights illuminated the more remote 
sections of the State with equal brilliancy. 

The Democrats, as usual, met at Jefferson City on the 8th of 
January and nominated John Miller and John Jameson candi- 



146 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

dates for the Twenty- sixth Congress, who were subsequently 
elected over Beverly Allen and John Wilson, nominated for 
the same oflS.ce, by the Whig party. 

The Democratic journal, the Argus, a tri- weekly until then, 
became a daily, and the canvass was conducted with great 
energy and spirit by both parties to the end of the campaign. 

The month of February of 1838 was remarkably cold, the 
ice being two feet thick on the Missouri river ojiposite St. 
Charles, and the heaviest wagons crossed it daily during three 
consecutive weeks. 

The Mississippi was also covered with ice above Bissell's 
point to its source. It was cleared of ice so as not to obstruct 
the St. Louis ferry opposite the city, but was closed below at 
the Big Muddy, and navigation was suspended during three 
weeks of February of that year. 

It was so intensely cold in St. Louis that the Young Men's 
Political Society, on the 24th of Februar}^, adjourned for one 
week, on account of the excessive inclemency of the weather, 
which was equally severe through the whole State and terri- 
tories westward. 

The St. Louis public schools made their first practical essay 
this year with great success, and have nearly kept pace in 
growth with the improvements and population of the city 
since, without a serious accident or loss by fire or storm to this 
time, 1870. 

A general spirit of literary enterprise seemed to be awak- 
ened that year, and several wealthy gentlemen urged forward 
private schools of a high grade. Messrs. Moure and Wyman 
among the first, each established one of that kind, which flour- 
ished many years. 

Kemper College was opened under the auspices of the Epis- 
copalians and Drs. Hall and McDowell. 

Dr. Joseph N. McDowell commenced the labors that deserv- 
edly connect his name with the history of St. Louis as one of 
its most distinguished and useful citizens on the first day of 
September, 1888, by lecturing on the natural history of man, 
and elucidated his theory by exhibiting skulls of several differ- 
ent races of men, and pointing out to his auditory the marked 
diflference apparent in their forms, and then explained the 
characteristics peculiar to each race. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. I47 

This lecture brought him at once into notice as one con- 
nected in the Kemper College enterprise, and he immediately 
commenced the erection of a brick edifice for a medical college 
connected with Kemper College, a short distance westwardly 
from the site of that well known stupendous edifice he erected 
some years after, when he found his first establishment 
entirely too small to accommodate the large number of stu- 
dents who flocked to him for instruction, and which has yet, and 
probably always will, bear the name of its founder — " McDow- 
ell's College" — until some sad catastrophe destroys it. 

On the same evening that Dr. McDowell delivered his first 
lecture in St. Louis, Grovernor William Clarke died, at the age 
of sixty-eight years, in the city where he had long resided. 
He had been closely connected with the interests of Missouri 
and its history for thirty-four years, and was more extensively 
known then to red and white men than any man had ever 
been before, and had more influence over the red men than any 
one else has ever possessed. 

He was known and respected by all the Indian nations, how- 
ever remote, untutored, coy or timorous, and beloved and fol- 
lowed in his advice as an oracle or a deity, from the distant 
shores of the Pacific to his own hearthstone, on the bank of 
the Mississippi. 

He Avas the first governor of the territory of Missouri after 
the adoption of its new name, and subsequently superintend- 
ent of Indian Affairs of the western division to his death. 
After his death St. Louis was no longer the Mecca to red men ; 
their annual visits ceased, and the familiar sights of groups of 
rich, fantastically-dressed, painted Indians were no longer seen 
in the streets, surrounded by troops of children admiring their 
costumes, witnessing their dances, and listening to their rude 
music. Their friend and benefactor, their guide and adviser, 
was no more. St. Louis was thereafter but as his tomb to 
them, and had no longer any charms to attract them hither. 

When the general excitement of the election had passed 
away, 40,618 votes were shown to have been polled in this year 
for congressmen, while 27,372 only had been polled for gov- 
ernor in 1836, showing the rai)id growth of jDopulation during 
the two years just elapsed. Soon after the election two new 
sources of excitement began to agitate the people in the north- 



148 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

ern part of tlie State and urge them to call on the Executive for 
aid. The first was for protection against the territorial author- 
ities of Iowa, who claimed jurisdiction over a strip of Missouri 
about six miles wide south of the line of the territory, and 
attempted to use force to maintain it. This dispute with Iowa 
was settled peaceably soon after. The second was much more 
serious, and had more martial, tragic and violent incidents con- 
nected with it in its progress. 

The Mormons, in great numbers, had arrived in Missouri 
from Ohio and located themselves as best they could in and 
about Daviess county, intending to make it their permanent 
home, without changing their morals or manners from what 
they were while residing in the neighboring State of Illinois. 
Their lawlessness soon became unbearable, as they set aside 
the process of ordinary law and abused its officers. Justice 
Adam Black, of Daviess county, made an affidavit of their acts 
on the 9th of August, and called for military assistance. 
Capt. Bogard responded to the call and went on duty with 
his company as a posse comitatus. He was surprised and had 
ten killed and thirty wounded and taken prisoners by the Mor- 
mons, who had four hundred men under arms. The governor 
then called out twenty-five hundred militia, by which the Mor- 
mons were arrested, thirty killed, among them two children, 
and many other acts of great violence done by both parties 
which can never be justified by a Christian people. 

At length peace was restored by force of arms, but no har- 
mony, for Missourians had shown the}^ would not tolerate such 
unworthy people or permit them to remain in their midst. 
Therefore the Mormons prepared to leave — not in as limited 
time as when they came among the Missourians, but with as 
universal consent as when they left Illinois. 

Kemper College was opened on the 15th of October, 1838, 
under the superintendence of Rev. P. R. Minard, with a board 
of trustees, seventeen in number, selected from the most 
learned wealthy, and influential gentlemen of the Protestant 
Episcopal community in St. Louis, and plenty of students 
entered. 

The St. Louis University was then, as it always has been, in 
successful, silent progress since it introduction into the city, 
inciting all others to perseverance, industry and excellence, 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. I49 

and, as it gathered strengtli, adding new facilities to its accu- 
mulations for accomplisliingh perfection. 

The same may be said of the female institution known as 
the Convent of the Sacred Heart, founded by the munificence 
of the late John MuUanphy, and conducted much on the same 
charitable and economical principle — receiving payment of 
those able to pay and teaching the indigent gratis. 

In these two institutions the highest as well as the lowest 
branches of a finished education have been constantly taught 
in English, Spanish, French and German by competent instruc- 
tors in their native language without the least apparent change, 
except their constant and steady growth and enlargement. 

The example and success of these institutions prompted 
clergymen and laymen to open and patronize Parochial Schools, 
chiefly Catholics and Episcopalians, which, together with the 
Public Schools, have since that year been in rapid and constant 
growth, and have given the people of St. Louis better facilities 
for educating their children agreeably to their own taste than 
any other city in the United States. 

The date, therefore, of the rapid growth of literary excel- 
lence in Missouri coincides with the opening of the St. Louis 
Public Schools, in 1838, and its progress has been as steadily 
on the increase as the population of the city since that period. 

On the 20th of November of this year the Legislature met at 
Jefferson City and continued its session until February of 1839, 
during which many necessary and useful acts were passed, one 
of which was the establishment of the St. Louis Criminal Court, 
over which Hon. James B. Bowlin presided as judge several 
years. Also, an act incorporating the company which built the 
Planters' House. A Mayor's Court was also instituted. An 
edifice known as Christ Church, at the southwest corner of 
Chesnut and Fifth streets, was built and dedicated this year, but 
which, like the theater, gave place in a few years to commerce, 
and, assuming vastly greater dimensions, has risen in splendor 
at a more quiet and retired location, near Lucas Place, corner 
of Thirteenth and Locust streets. 

Financial affairs had assumed (outside of Missouri) a very 
doubtful aspect, and the ofiicers of the Bank of the State of 
Missouri observing it, and being determined to protect their 



15' 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



bank from loss, refused to receive an}^ suspended bank notes 
on deposit or in pa3^ment at their counter. 

This was a distressing movement to the mercantile part of 
the community at the time, who made an effort to get the 
resolution rescinded by giving ten of the most responsible gen- 
tlemen of the city as indemnificators against loss to the bank. 
After very deliberate consultation, the directory declined to 
rescind the resolution. A most violent tempest of words in 
business circles immediately followed. An indignation meet- 
ing was announced and held to express the sentiments of those 
interested against the directors, and at a later day a counter 
meeting of friends was held to approve their action, while the 
bank proceeded as usual, according to the resolution of the 
directory first published. Very few persons withdrew their 
deposits from the bank or their business, and it was observ- 
able that those who made most noise on either side had no 
deposits of great magnitude in any bank. 

The wisdom of the directory became apparent soon after, 
and the proffered bondsmen rejoiced in their happy escape from 
great losses. The bank maintained its credit to the end of a 
brilliant career, and returned to the stockholders their invest- 
ments and a fair dividend for its use and risk during the period. 

Political meetings in anticipation of the Presidential election 
of 1840 began to be of frequent occurrence, and halls and 
places were fitted up for such meetings, and became established 
as headquarters and received their appropriate names accord- 
ing to the taste of the occupants. 

A political organization was formed called the Whig Vigi- 
lance Committee, who were very active in keeping their ad- 
herents well informed on all political movements and in the 
strict line of obedience to all the tactics of their part3\ 

It was composed of a very large number of our oldest, 
youngest and most worthy citizens, and so numerous that it 
seemed to include nearly every legal voter in the county of 
that party, which was then in the majority. 

The meetings and movements of that association filled the 
city with more noise and political strife (but without bloodshed) 
than any other exciting cause (before or since the civil war) has 
ever done. Their proceedings then distinguished the year 1840 
as one of most remarkable political excitement, such as 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 151 

parades, processions, log cabin barbecues and stump speeches. 

Notwithstanding the excitement, the impediments and prog- 
nostications of disaster to commerce, the march of St. Louis 
was onward. 

Tliere were two thousand and ninety-five arrivals of steam- 
boats reported at the wharf of St. Louis during the year 1839, 
and a similar prosperity was apparent all over the State. 

In April, 1840, the foundation of St. Xavier's Catholic Church, 
at the corner of Ninth and Grreen streets, attached to the St. 
Louis University, was laid with the usual ceremonies observed 
on such occasions, in presence of a large concourse of spectators. 
It was the second edifice of the kind built and now standing 
in the city, and was the most western at that time, and was 
located beyond the limits of the corporation. Thirty years 
have scarce elapsed since, and the edifice is now in the middle 
of a city fifteen times as large and containing fifteen times as 
many inhabitants as at that period. 

On the first Monday of April of this year Hon. John F. 
Darby was elected Mayor of the city, an office he had resigned 
two or three years previously, when his term of office had only 
about half expired. It was regarded as a political triumph 
on the part of the Whigs,-as disclosing their reliable strength 
in the city at tlie polls and the certainty of future success. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

Establishment of tlie Ten Hour System of Labor— Great 
Extension of the City Limits and Limsion into Five 
Wards — The Abolition of Property Qualifications for 
Voters — The Murder of Two Young Men by Four Negroes, 
and their subsequent Arrest, Conviction and Execution. 

The success of the Whigs at the municipal election in April 
intensified their exertions to gain the State of Missouri, and 
Messrs. Nathaniel Paschall and Charles G. Ramsey came into 
the political field as auxiliaries at about the same time, with 
powerful pens and good presses, under the name and style of 



152 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

Tlie New Era^ and did honor to the cause they had espoused 
to the end of the canvass, as well as assisted in elevating the 
commercial and literary character of the city and the State. 

The ambition to build up the city was not abated or diverted 
by the political breezes then in lively motion, but a more sys- 
tematic and leas tedious mode of accomplishing it was at this 
time suggested, considered, and soon after generall}^ adopted. 
It had been customary, previous to May, 1840, in St. Louis and 
Missouri, for mechanics and laborers to be present and labor for 
their employers from sunrise to sunset, taking a recess of one 
hour from six o'clock to seven a. m., to breakfast, and from 
twelve o'clock m. to one o'clock p. m. to dine. 

About the middle of May of this year several bricklayers 
asked their emploj^ers to establish a fixed number of hours for 
a day's labor for tliem, and make it uniform at all seasons of 
the year. The employers declined to listen to the proposi- 
tion or fix on ten hours as a day's labor, and the journeymen 
quit work at once and marched quietly through the principal 
streets in the order of a procession, to exhibit their numbers, 
and appointed a public meeting to be held at the court house 
on the afternoon of the 23d of May, at which a great number of 
mechanics of all trades attended. 

The meeting had been called by the journeymen bricklay- 
ers, but the multitude present was composed of a large portion 
of every mechanical art in operation in the city, and the well- 
informed, influential citizens. 

On the meeting being called to order. Col. Thornton Grims- 
ley was elected chairman, and on his taking his seat expressed 
his profound sensibility of the high honor that had been con- 
ferred on him by being called to preside over a journeymen's 
meeting, and declared he would try to discharge the duties as 
far as he was able ; that he was not a bricklayer, but a saddle 
and harness maker, and employed many journeymen, and, 
from interested motives, might be supposed to be opposed to 
their movements. He, however, assured them he was not, but 
approved of the measure as reasonable and just. Then, turn- 
ing around and viewing his auditory, he said : " I see many 
employers of journeymen before me of other trades, who, if 
they come into this ten-hour system, may in some instances 
lose a little time of painful toil, but will be well rewarded for 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. I 53 

tlie sacrifice in better, willing labor, and enjoy the smiles of 
wives and little children at the early return of their husbands 
and fathers from labor if they will go and see them meet." 
The sequel was, the ten-hour system was adopted, and has 
prevailed these thirty years since without discord or dissent 
among all classes who labor by the day or employ others to 
labor for them. 

The quadrennial election was drawing near, and large 
meetings of the "Whigs were held throughout the city, usu- 
ally one each evening at a point remote from the place of the 
last meeting, at which large numbers from distant sections 
of the city convened, marching in open order to give appar- 
ent importance to the meeting and eclat to their movements. 
Thus most of the evenings of June and July, 1840, were spent 
interspersed with songs, shouts, huzzas and shows as vari- 
able as ingenuity and enthusiasm could invent or money 
purchase. In the meantime, their Democratic brethren looked 
on in amusement at their devices to win converts to their 
cause, and with equal vigilance and pertinacity, but with 
silence and caution, watched their lines and exhorted to con- 
stancy and perseverance, and in the State held the reins of 
power. At length the votes were cast and counted, when it 
was found 29,625 votes had been given for Thomas Reynolds 
for governor, and 22,212 for John B. Clark ; therefore Thos. 
Rejaiolds was elected governor by a majority of 7,413 of the 
whole 51,837 votes which had been given for governor in 1840, 
after the most unusual activity had been exerted by both par- 
ties to bring their whole strength to the polls. 

M. M. Marmaduke was elected lieutenant-governor at the 
same time. John Miller and John C. Edwards were also 
elected members of Congress, with a majority of about seven 
thousand votes each over their Whig competitors. 

The Democratic party had elected a decided majority of the 
members of the Legislature of 1840. The St. Louis county 
delegation, however, was Whig, and, therefore, could hope to 
have but a feeble voice in the future political movements of 
the Legislature. 

The Whigs of St. Louis still hoped Missouri would cast her 
four votes for Harrison, the Whig candidate for the Presi- 
dency, and continued their exertions and organizations until 



154 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

after tlie presidential election in November, when the Demo- 
cratic nominees were elected in Missouri, and cast the vote of 
the State for Martin Van Buren. 

The Legislature met on the 21st of November, and about 
that time it was ascertained that a majority of the electors 
chosen in the United States were Whigs. The elation of the 
Whigs at this announcement surpassed anything of the kind 
ever witnessed before in the city. 

The St. Louis theatre was offered by the proprietor for an 
Athenjieum for an oration, which was delivered by Hon. Wilson 
Primm, then one of the 3'^oungest members of the St. Louis 
bar. Col. John O'Fallon presided as president of the meeting, 
assisted by several vice-presidents. 

The whigs devoted the day to the jubilee, and if the rolling 
of the stone of Sysiphus did not cease, the issue of the Mis- 
souri Republican did, which demonstrated the devotion of 
that sheet to the cause it had esj)oused. 

All mechanical professions were represented in a grand pro- 
cession, which moved in triumph through the principal streets 
of the city in the early part of the day, exhibiting every 
demonstration of joy and gladness. 

In the early part of this year the palatial steamer Meteor 
made the trip from New Orleans to St. Louis in hve days and 
five hours, being the quickest trip ever made from that port 
before that time. 

The political excitement of the period seemed to arouse the 
energies of the aged and cause them to act the part of youth, 
and prompted youth to act the part of manhood so far that 
although the politicians contrived to engross much of the time 
of their constituents in political enterprises, the progress of 
business advanced with as much activity and regularity as in 
quiet times, and the current of business and growth of the city 
advanced with its usual velocity, if not regularity, and ban- 
ished ennui and suicides from the heads of all politicians. 

The Missouri Legislature was industriously engaged in 
framing laws for improving the State, incorporating new towns 
and vilhiges, companies of insurance and others, locating State 
roads, forming new counties, changing the lines of others, 
and tixing county seats for all not established. 

The rapid growth of St. Louis engaged their careful atten- 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 1 55 

tion, and on tlie 4tli of January, 1841, tlie Legislature extended 
tlie city limits on the sontli, the west, and the north very con- 
siderably, as follows: "Beginning at a point due east of the 
southeast corner of St. George Addition, thence westwardly to 
second Carondelet Avenue, thence with west line of said 
Avenue to the north line of Chouteau Avenue, thence to the 
mouth of Stony Creek, thence by the line of the river to the 
place of beginning." 

The Mayor and Board of Aldermen were authorized to 
divide the city into five Wards and make other municipal 
regulations with enlarged powers, greatly to the advancement 
of permanent improvements within the city limits. 

The most noteworthy act, however, of that Legislature was 
the abolition of property qualifications for voters and munici- 
pal officers, which was passed at that session. 

On the 8th of February, Hon. Luke E. Lawless, then Judge 
of the Circuit Court of St. Louis County, adjourned the court 
to the l-8th inst., as he was certain that during this short time 
he would be re-appointed to that office and be confirmed by 
the Senate, and thus be enabled to remount the judicial bench, 
elated iii view of his haters, or some other person would be 
appointed, confirmed, and perhaps qualified to take the seat, 
and thereby he would save himself from the contemptuous grin 
that would display itself if the announcement should arrive 
while he was actually sitting on the bench. 

The v/ell-timed act saved him from the evils of the latter 
alternative. Before the adjournment elapsed the governor 
appointed Hon. Bryan MuUanphy to the office, who was con- 
firmed by the Senate, and he entered on the discharge of the 
duties of the office, while Judge Lawless retired quietly to pri- 
vate life in the city. 

The well known and well built Planters' House was opened 
by Messrs. Stickney & Knight as proprietors on the first day of 
April, 1841, and dinner was served there on that day for the first 
time ; and it has been kept open in the same style during the 
twenty-nine years since, and is at this day a model house for 
all the world, being large, convenient, central, well lighted and 
airy, with access, ingress and egress easy from all points and 
occupying a most healthful elevation. 

At the municipal election in April, 1841, Hon. John D. Dag- 



356 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI, 

gett was elected mayor of tlie city and was installed into office 
as usual in such cases. The puhlic excitement seemed 
quieted and the current of "business taking its proper channel 
when, on the morning of the 18th of April, the citizens were 
roused by the cry of lire, and the firemen turned out with 
alacrity and proceeded to the east end of Pine street, where a 
large stone warehouse was on fire, occupied in front by Sim- 
onds & Morrison and in the rear by Wm. Gr. Pettus as a brok- 
er's office. 

The. fire appearing general and the doors being closed, they 
were broken open and Jacob Weaver found murdered, lying on 
the floor in a pool of his own blood. The whole building was on 
fire inside, and the adjacent building ignited and others in 
danger. No time was lost by the firemen ; they commenced at 
once to confine the fire to the building already ruined, and while 
Mr. Ansel S. Kemball, 1st engineer of the Union Fire company, 
was engaged directing a stream of water on the fire, a portion 
of the wall fell and instantly killed him. After the building 
was destroyed the remains of Mr. Jesse Baker were found in 
the ruins, who had also been murdered and the building fired 
to conceal the crime. It was subsequently found that both 
these young men had been murdered by four negroes to rob 
Mr. Pettus of his money, which they failed to obtain. They 
were all caught, all convicted, all confessed their guilt, and all 
were executed at the same time by being hanged on the same 
beam in presence of thousands of spectators, on an island in 
the Mississippi in front of the city. This wholesale execution 
formed another epoch in St. Louis, and the expression, " since 
the negroes were hung " has not become entirely obsolete 
among the lads of St. Louis at this distant day. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. X57 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Tlie Establiskment of the Court of Common Pleas — Tlie 
Appearance of the JSfatlne Amerlcam Party — The Death of 
Hon. John B. C. Lucas. 

The growtli of St. Louis and Missouri in population and 
wealth lias long been well shown by its commercial growth. 
This has been readily ascertained from the Harbor Master's 
report at the close of each year. His report of steamboat 
arrivals in 1840 shows that there were 1,721 arrivals, with a 
tonnage of 244,185, against l,47i6 arrivals and 218,193 tonnage 
in 1839. 

The manufacture of flour, as shown by the inspector's report, 
was 19,075 bbls. in 1840, when only 9,399 were inspected in 
1839 ; 18,656 bbls. of whisky were inspected in 1840, against 
13,756 bbls. in 1839. The inspection of beef began to be 
reported in 1840, and 1,075 bbls. were inspected in that year in 
St. Louis, Stone coal had come into general use as fuel, and 
7,640 wagon and 2,342 cart loads were weighed at the scales in 
1840. 

In January, 1841, the Legislature established the Court of 
€ommon Pleas in St. Louis county, and Judge P. H. Engle, a 
learned and popular gentleman, presided over it until his 
declining health forced him from the bench. On the 23d of 
February of this year the St. Louis Medical School first con- 
ferred degrees on its students. 

A new party had made its appearance in other cities, and its 
friends were emulous that St, Louis should distinguish itself 
under the name of the Native American party also, and, having 
provided a press to disseminate their principles, they unfurled 
their partisan banner, under the name of ihe Pennant^ and 
about the 1st of March, 1841, began to publish the outlines of 
their platform, but studiously withheld the inner lines, except 
to the initiated, who were born in the United States, for all 
others were rejected from membership among them. 

The inauguration of President Harrison, on the 4th of March, 
gave vivacity to politicians at the time and caused some rejoic- 
ing among the vehement Whigs of the period \ but a sad cloud 



158 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

liiiiig- over tlie future prospects of the party in the shape of a 
nomination made by the Native Americtin party, in which 
some Democrats seemed vt^illing to coalesce ■ and share the 
spoils with them, and thus abated their ardor in all political 
movements at the municipal election. 

However, Hon. John D. Daggett was elected Mayor by the 
Whigs, who, as a party, governed the city, which then contained 
20,504 inhabitants in the old limits at that |>eriod. On the day 
following the election the message of President Harrison 
arrived, issued on the 20th of March, convening Congress on 
the 31st of May, 1841, and on the IStli the news of his death, 
on the morning of the 4th of Aj^ril, arrived, nine days after 
the melancholy event. 

It is difRcult to realize at this day that the news of so im- 
portant an event at that time traveled so slowh^, yet it was 
then considered a rapid movement of news. The obsequies of 
President Harrison were solemnized in an appropriate manner 
on the 22d of April, in which all the people seemed to take a 
deep interest and to realize the uncertainty and mutability of 
all human affairs. 

No year had witnessed so many changes as this at that time, 
and each day seemed to promise some extraordinary event to 
fill the streets with news bearers and willing- hearers of the 
latest wonders. 

The steamer Missouri arrived on the 4th of May, from New 
Orleans, in four days and twenty-three hours from port to 
to port, being the quickest trip that had ever been made. 

Business was steady but not very brisk, as many people 
were waiting for Congress to create a bank to stimulate com- 
mercial action ; but Missouii's delegation in Congress opposed 
the measure as fraught with danger and trouble, and thus kept 
her friends from the irritation and anxiety that destroyed the 
comfort and happiness of many who were expecting favors and 
facilities from sources that could only disappoint or mislead 
them. 

Congress convened in obedience to President Harrison's pro- 
clamation, and continued in session until the 13th of Septem- 
ber, 1841, engaged most of the time on two fiscal bills, both of 
which President Tyler vetoed and brought on himself the 
anathemas of all the Whig Congressmen and the general 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 1 59 

contempt of his whole party and most of his opponents. His 
conduct affected Missouri less than any of the other States of 
equal size, as she was less interested in hanking facilities in 
her commercial transactions. 

There were ten insurance companies then in St. Louis, which 
engaged in banking as far as their capital enabled them, and 
thus afforded facilities for commercial transactions, in a safe 
and legitimate way, equal to the wants of a prudent people. 

The city having been very considerably enlarged by a legis- 
lative act, was divided into five wards, and the street improve- 
ments were greatly extended, in addition to the immense 
enhancement of the value of property in her new limits. " 

At the municipal election in April, 1842, Hon. Geo. Maguire 
was elected Mayor of the city, and discharged the duties of 
the office with such quietude and satisfaction to the people that 
all seemed to act in harmony with his pacific disposition. 

On the 10th of May of this year the corner-stone of the 
Centenary Church was laid, at the southwest corner of Pine and 
Fifth streets, where it has stood and been used as a Methodist 
EpiscoiDal Church for twenty-eight years, and now, in 1870, is 
converted into a great commercial house and made one of the 
great centers of trade in the city, while the congregation has 
built a more imposing structure for their accommodation in a 
more retired and more suitable location, in an elevated part of 
the city, westwardly. 

In the autumn of 1842 Hon. John B. C. Lucas died. He had 
been one of the earliest settlers in Missouri, and held the office 
of judge of the highest tribunal of the District of Louisiana 
by appointment from President Jefl'erson, and continued in 
that position until the Territory became a State. He had also 
been aj)pointed a commissioner by Mr. Jefferson to settle the 
land claims of Upper Louisiana, and held the office until 1812. 
He was a gentleman of undoubted probity and honor, and 
most untiring industry and perseverance. Few men in the 
world ever left more lasting traces of their industry, judgment 
and character than he. 



l6o HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 



an AFTER XXI Y. 

St, Louis Becomes a Manufacturing City — RemarJcdble Trial 
of a Circuit Court Judge 'before a Criminal Courts and Ms 
Acquittal — Change in the Manner of Voting in St. Louis 
County — The Steamer Edna Collapses a Flue and Destroys 
the Lives of Fifty-fine Persons — The Death of Several 
Prominent Citizens. 

St. Louis had already become a maniifacturiiig city in 1842, 
and had arrived at it by slow advances and the industry of her 
own people. No large capitalists had then brought their 
wealth on this side of the Mississippi to establish factories. 
They had been built up generally from small beginnings by 
the persons who then conducted them, some of which contin- 
ued many years as noble monuments of the untiring industry 
and perseverance of their builders. 

Perhaps no more remarkable instance of this kind can be 
pointed out than that of Samuel Gatj^, Esq., who, in 1829, 
established himself on the same ground which he occu]oied 
with others as an iron faundry, and continued it above thirty 
years without any change, except perfecting and enlarging it, 
until all connected with it had acquired princely .estates and 
could retire and. enjoy it as best ^suited then* tastes and incli- 
nations. 

His example and success prompted others to enter into sim- 
ilar establishments ; and the facilities for obtaining coal and 
iron encouraged the multiplication of foundries for the manu- 
facture of all kinds of castings and machinery in general use. 

On the 25th of April of this year the St. Louis Oak came 
down from the boat-yard of Capt. Irvine, under her enterx^rising 
owner and commander Capt. F. Coonce, and was placed at the 
wharf to receive freight for Galena, for which trade she 
had been built ; and is believed to have been the first boat, 
with all her engines, tackle and machinery, built entirely in 
St. Louis. 

Her engines and machinery were manufactured by Messrs. 
Gaty, McCune & Glasby, and their high finish and perfec- 
tion established the character of that class of manufactm-es 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. l6l 

wliich tliey have since so eminently maintained in St. Louis 
and Missouri. 

From tbis period may be dated the growth of boat-building 
and repairing in and about St. Louis, which has continued 
without a check ; and no disaster of great magnitude has 
ever occurred in that line without its being covered by 
insurance. 

A most uncommon presentment by the grand jury was made 
at the May term of this year in the St. Louis Criminal Court 
against Hon. Brj^an MuUanphy, judge of tlie Circuit Court, for 
oppression in the discharge of the duties of his office, and he 
was arraigned for trial on the 10th day of May of that remark- 
able year. 

Such an extraordinary case excited great attention and 
brought a crowded audience to the court house to hear the 
accusation and the defense of such a distinguished individual. 

The whole occurrence that produced the presentment had 
transpired in open court in presence of a learned bar of very 
considerable numbers, and the complainant was one of the 
number and a gentleman of fine abilities, and was regarded 
as a profound scholar in the law by most of his associates. 

The act, or rather acts, complained of, as shown on the trial, 
was that, in the progress of a suit in the circuit court, where 
Judge MuUanphy presided, Ferdinand W. Risque, Esq., who 
represented one of the parties litigant, had a motion before the 
court on which the gist of the action rested, and having made 
a speech before his honor, seemed to expect a decision from 
the court in his favor. The court, however, delivered a deci- 
sion which w^as directly opposite to Mr. Risque's interest and 
proposition. Thereupon Mr. Risque, casting a most scornful 
glance at the judge, began snatching up the papers in the 
case in a contemptuous manner, which the judge could not 
fail to recognize as directed at him, and ord-ered Mr. Risque 
to take his seat. 

Mr. Risque replied, 1 prefer to stand. Judge MuUanphy 
then instructed the clerk to enter a fine of fifty dollars against 
Mr. Risque, and directing his attention again to Mr. Risque, 
ordered him to take a seat. Mr. Risque replied as before, and 
the judge ordered the clerk to enter another fine of fifty dol- 
lars against Mr. Risque, who still remained standing, probably 



l62 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

two minutes, wlien the judge addressed liim as before — Mr. 
Risque, take your seat. Mr, Risque replied, I prefer to stand,, 
and still remained standing. Judge Mullanpliy then ordered 
the clerk to enter another fine of fifty dollars against Mr. Risque 
for contempt of court. The judge then ordered the sheriff 
to remove Mr. Risque from the court room, and hnsiness pro- 
ceeded as usual, Mr, Risque, in the meantime, in charge of 
the sheriff", leaving the court room. 

The whole proceedings and trial were conducted with great 
ability and decorum, and ended by the jury declaring the 
judge not guilty. More than a quarter of a centur}^ lias since 
passed, and most of the actors are dead, but the example lives 
as a lasting monument that the dignity of courts is not to be 
trifled with in our community by dissatisfied litigants or their 
agents. 

The public schools of St. Louis had now become well estab- 
lished and popular, but had only two school houses — one on 
Fourth street, with two teachers, and one on Sixth street, with 
four teachers. Their salaries were low : one male teacher 
received $900 per annum, and two male teachers received $500 
each per annum. One female teacher received $500 per 
annum, and two female teachers $400 each per annum. 

The first introductory lecture to the summer course of the 
medical department of the St. Louis University was delivered 
by Prof. Hall to the students and a crowded auditory on the 
28th of March, 1842. 

The people of St. Louis had become accustomed to financial 
troubles, but they were now called on to meet a more general 
failure of all confidence in banks and ]3aper promises than 
ever, in the spring of this year. 

The notes of the State Bank of Illinois were refused by all 
the brokers in the city, and St. Louis city warrants were unsale- 
able at less than fifteen per cent, discount among the peojDle. 

The Bank of the State of Missouri refused all notes but its 
own, which, with the tardy action Congress in furnishing 
funds for the Indian department and other engagements of 
the West, had the eff'ect to depress business more during that 
year than any one in the twenty years preceding. 

The apportionment of representation in Congress under the 
late census of 1840 was delayed until late in May of 1842 ; and 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 163 

the act then had heen so framed that when it was received 
there was much difficulty in determining what it would be 
proper to do at the approaching election, as the State had not 
been divided into districts corresponding in number with her 
present apportionment. 

The election, however, was ordered under the former general 
ticket system, and every preparation made to verify the 
strength of parties on the Congressional ticket as usual. 

On the 22d of June Hon. James B. Bowlin resigned his office 
as judge of the Criminal Court of St. Louis county, and a few 
days after Gov. Thomas Reynolds appointed Alonzo "W. Man- 
ning, Esq., to the vacant seat. 

Judge Bowlin then became a candidate for Congress, and 
was elected, with James M. Hughes, Jas. H. Relfe, Gusiavus 
B. Bower and John Jameson as his colleagues, at the election 
in August, 1842. 

•3 On the 30th of September, John Smith, president of the Bank 
of the State of Missouri, resigned that office, which he had held 
from the founding of that institution with general appro- 
bation. The reason he assigned for the act was the inad- 
equacy of his salary to the support of his family and his desire 
to enter into a more productive employment. 

The Legislature convened on the 21st of November, organ- 
ized, and received the Governor's message on the follow- 
ing day. 

After the committee had been formed and all in order for 
legislation, on the 23d of November the two houses met and 
re-elected Dr. Lewis F. Linn United States Senator from 
Missouri. 

One of the first and most remarkable acts of this Legislature 
was the act changing the time and manner of voting in the 
county and city of St. Louis, which still obtains. 

According to the old law the voting was done in two or three 
days, as directed by the county court, and mva voce. 

The new act reduced the time to a single day and changed 
the viva voce to voting by ballot. The act was approved by 
the governor on the 17th of December, 1842, and has now been 
in operation 27 years. 

Five hundred and twenty-five thousand bushels of coal were 
reported weighed at the different St. Louis scales in 1841, which 



164 HISTORY OF ST, LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

showed tlie importance of tlie trade at that early day, and the 
progress that was being made in developing the resources of 
the country. 

On taking a retrospective view of the events of this year 
the most remarkable feature that , presents itself to the eye is 
the frequency of occurrences of a mournful character. 

The death of Hon. John B. C, Lucas, on the 29th of August of 
this year, and his distinguished character and services, have 
already been noted ; and it is left for others at a later day to do 
justice to his memory, when the extent of the vision of his far- 
seeing eyes into the future greatness of St, Louis shall have 
become more thoughtfully considered and better known to the 
thousands dwelling in their palatial residences, on the very 
grounds he had reclaimed from a state of nature- and mowed 
and plowed over in his declining years, while contemplating 
the mighty changes he saw so rapidly approaching, and veri- 
fying his early predictions. 

The arrival of foreigners at St. Louis, and their immediate 
departure during the spring and summer to the interior, had 
become so frequent and common that little attention was given 
to it until Sunday morning, the 3d of July, when one of those 
appalling catastrophes transpired which shook society by 
their recital and filled many bosoms with grief by their conse- 
quences. 

The steamer Edna, a Missouri river boat, had left St. Louis 
the evening preceding, with about one hundred jDersons on 
board, a large portion of whom were German emigrants seek- 
ing new homes in the interior of Missouri, at which they had 
nearly arrived. 

The boat had landed in the night near the mouth of the Mis- 
souri to wait for daylight to enter the river. The deck passen- 
gers, as usual on a crowded boat, had disposed of themselves 
as best they could in rear of the boilers and engines for sleep, 
and spent the night quietly. 

At dawn of day the assistant engineer made preparations to 
start, and did start the engine ; but before the wheel had made 
a revolution the two flues of the larboard boiler collapsed, 
throwing the whole contents of the boiler on the unfortunate 
sleeping deck passengers, killing the engineer, and producing 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 1 65 

a scene of horror and distress that is more easily imagined 
than described. 

The steamers latan and Annawan were under way, in sight, 
and their officers came immediately to the assistance of the 
. sufferers, and taking the boat in tow landed it at the St. Louis 
wharf, when the dead, the dying and the wounded were imme- 
diately transferred to the Sisters' Hospital, where they received 
all the attention that humanity could afford and all the con- 
solation that piety can contribute in such indescribable suf- 
ferings. 

Fifty-five persons lost their lives by this sad calamity, most 
of whom were buried from the court house on the next day, 
the 4th of July, by the citizens, while the city was filled with 
sorrow and pity for the surviving sufferers. 

Eight erf the wounded, after great suflfering, finally recovered. 

St. Louis had but recently followed to the tomb two distin- 
guished individuals, as unlike each other as any two who 
could be named, and yet both known, beloved and respected 
by nearly every member of the community. 

The first was Mr. Antoine Chenie, a man of peace and qui- 
etude. He was born in Montreal, Canada, on the 14th of 
April, 1768, and died in his well known mansion, on the north 
side of Market street. May 26, 1842. He had formerly kept a 
bakery, without a competitor, when the city was in its infanc}^, 
and there was not one brick upon another in the form of a 
human habitation in the county of St. Louis. He had acquired 
a competency many years before his death, had educated Ijis 
family and seen them enter life in connection with the most 
prominent families in the city of their birth. 

The other gentleman was Gen. Henry Atkinson, who died on 
the 15th day of June, 1842. He had early given himself to the 
profession of arms, had served during the war of 1812 and in 
the Black Hawk war with great credit and distinction, and had 
endeared himself to all his brother officers and soldiers at Jef- 
ferson Barracks, where he commanded, by his kindness and 
soldierly bearing, and to the whole community where he dwelt 
by his urbanity and hospitable disposition. 

His obsequies were celebrated under the Rev. Mr. Hedges, 
chaplain of the post of Jefferson Barracks, and his remains 
buried with the honors of war in the cemetery at that post. 



l66 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

The distress of tlie community was not confined to ordinary 
causes of grief and calamities. On tlie niglit of tlie lOtli of 
August five j)ersons went to tlie residence of Maj. Floyd, a 
quiet citizen, near the Fair grounds, and barbarously murdered 
him by beating him to death, and then robbed his house of a 
large sum of money in presence of his distressed wife. Several 
persons were arrested, one was tried and executed, and the 
other four escaped after many efforts to apprehend and j)un- 
isli them. 

On the 19 th of September the citizens of St. Louis were 
called to lament the death of Col. Joseph C. Laveille, one of its 
most distinguished members, and one of its earliest and great- 
est builders and promoters — a real, practical and educated 
mechanic of taste and judgment, who had qualified his mind 
by profound study to lead those around him in the paths of 
wisdom and virtue. 

He was the first architect of the present St. Louis court 
house, commenced in 1826, and although more than five times 
as large now as when it was declared finished b}^ him and his 
partner, Mr. George Morton, its symmetry and perfection were 
as creditable to the first architects as the last, in the estima- 
tion of connoiseurs. 

Joseph W. Walsh, Esq., clerk of the court of common pleas, 
had held that office from the organization of the court until his 
death, about the last of September, 1842. He was a most ami- 
able man and a fine scholar, having received his education 
in" St. Louis, and was known to almost ever}^ individual in 
the county who always placed the most implicit confidence 
in his integrity and honor, and favored him with any office he 
desired within their gift until his death. 

On his demise, Judge Engle appointed John Smith, Esq., 
late president of the Bank of the State of Missouri, to the 
vacant clerkship. 

He was an old resident of St. Louis, whose probity and 
honor had been tested in the high position he had occupied in 
the Bank of the State of Missouri, and hence his appointment 
to that office gave universal satisfaction. He afterwards 
became the collector of the taxes of St. Louis county, all of 
which offices he discharged with the same brilliant fidelity. 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 167 



CIIAPTEK XXY. 

Remarliahle Visit of Audubon, tlie Ornitliologist, to the Moutli 
of the Yellowstone river, and his safe Return — The Murder 
and Robbery of Don Chavis on the Santa Fe Road — Visit 
of Colonel Richard M. Johnson to St. Louis — Death of Maj. 
Pitcher at St. Louis. 

The financial gloom tliat liad operated against tlie growth of 
the city seemed to be removed early in the spring of 1843, and 
more glittering prospects were visible in every branch of busi- 
ness. All classes had become accustomed to relying on indus- 
try and economy for progress and prosperity, and less on 
banks and political movements. 

St. Louis had become a great exporting as well as importing 
city, and relied on specie as a circulating medium of exchange 
in all commercial transactions. 

Prices of all exports were low, but industry and abundant 
crops had filled the warehouses to overflowing with the pro- 
ductions of 1842, and commercial intercourse was being ex- 
tended on all the streams tributary to the Mississippi, wliich 
caused great activity along the levee and among the steamboats 
and mechanical work shops. 

The prices current in March of that year were : For flour at 
city mills, $4 to $4 25 per barrel ; from country mills, $3 75 per 
bbl. ; wheat 55 to 60 cents per busliel ; corn 20 to 22c. ; whisky 
17c. per gallon ; bacon shoulders $1 50 per cwt. ; hams 82 50, 
and sides $3 per cwt. ; lard 5 to 51-2c. per lb. ; lead 82 62 1-2 
to S2 68 per cwt. ; G. A. salt $1 75 per sack, and L. B. salt $2 25 
per sack. The State tobacco warehouse was then being built, 
also sixty stores, mostly along Front, Main and Second streets. 
The two most conspicuous were those of Mr. Valle, on Main 
street, built of Ste. Genevieve marble. Three hundred brick 
buildings were also in process of construction. The Glasgow 
Row, between Locust and St. Charles streets, and the houses 
of Messrs. Lucas and Gamble were most noteworthy, being in 
front of the Planters' House. The rapid growth of the city 
had increased the number of mechanics so much that they 
were induced to make a trial of their political strength 



l68 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

as a workingmen's party, and therefore selected Mr. John 
M. Wimer as a candidate for the office of Mayor at the muni- 
cipal election of that year, over a veteran competitor who 
had held the office with great credit to himself several years 
before. During this exciting canvass the progress of busi- 
ness was active. The Glasgow House was opened on the 
2d of March, by Messrs. Wiley & Scollay, under the most flat- 
tering auspices, at the corner of Olive and Second streets, where, 
under another name, it still flourishes. On the following day 
the celebrated naturalist, John J. Audubon, arrived at the 
house, accompanied by Edward Harris, Esq., of New Jersey, 
on a quadrupedal and ornithological trip of collections and 
observations for his celebrated book — the crown of all his 
labors. The American Fur Comj)any furnished him with every 
facility for prosecuting his journey to the latitude of 47 degrees 
and 20 minutes north — five miles above Fort Union and three 
miles above the mouth of the Yellowstone river, where he 
arrived on the 14tli of June, 1843. There, under the auspices 
of the company, he accomplished the task which had brought 
him from Europe, and was returned with his friend to St. Louis 
without cost or accident of any kind, and carried with him that 
store of knowledge in quest of which he had traveled so far. 
From St. Louis he proceeded with his friend to New York with 
his rare and valuable collection, and from thence to France, 
where, it is presumed, he completed the great labors which had 
occupied his mind through the long period of his remarkable 
life. St. Louis trappers, traders, boatmen, merchants, and all 
those engaged in the explorations of the then distant wilds, had 
joined in aff'ording him every facility for accomplishing his 
object, and it was said by those who accompanied him that 
the Indians, and the children of the Upper Missouri Indians, 
brought liim rare birds and their eggs, and little quadrupeds, to 
show their desire to add to the stock of knowledge which he 
was accumulating. 

The late city election had shown that St. Louis was still in 
progress. She had elected a young mechanic, John M. Wimer, 
Mayor, who was inaugurated on the lltli of April, and old 
offices were now to be filled with younger incumbents of his 
party. There was, however, none of that hasty action that 



HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 1 69 

marks the age of folly in tlie proceedings of the City Council 
at that time, but considerate progress. 

Mr. Joseph A. Wherry, who had succeeded his father as 
Register of the city, died a few days before the election. The 
father and the son had filled the same office for more than a 
quarter of a century with the regularity of the sun, and there is 
not to this day a better example of fidelity in office than those 
two gentlemen gave to the people of St. Louis. 

There was no shock of credit, and German thalers and French 
five-francs were receivable and transferable during that active 
season with as much facility in commercial transactions as 
exchanges are made at Hamburg, Frankfort or London. In 
short, St. Louis had become the well-known center of the West, 
and its Briarean arms had been felt in the eastern hemisphere 
as in the United States. Wealthy emigrants crowded the steam- 
boats bound for St. Louis from all parts of Europe. The whole 
taxable property in St. Louis was assessed at $11,721,425, and 
a levy of one per cent, made upon it as a city tax for that year. 

Early in April the people of Jackson and Clay counties were 
thrown into great excitement by the arrival of ten persons 
from the western plains with large sums of specie, chiefly 
Mexican dollars, which they had robbed on the first of April 
from the merchant train of Antonio Jose Davi Chavis in the 
Indian country of the United States as he was traveling with 
his train of wagons on the road from Santa Fe to Independence 
to procure a stock of goods. After robbing him of his money 
they deliberately determined to murder him and drew lots for 
two to shoot him, which was done, the money divided and the 
party separated. On their arrival in detached parties they 
were apprehended by the citizens, who pursued them with com- 
mendable energy, recovered $7,500 of the money, and lodged 
them in the St. Louis jail. They were tried before the United 
States Court and punished. Two were hung near the Arsenal. 

May 9th the Hon. Eichard M. Johnson honored St. Louis 
with a formal visit and was received with all the formalities 
usual on such occasions ; but truth compels us to state he was 
not believed to be the man who killed Tecumseh, so there 
was not that general enthusiasm manifested on the occasion 
that had been expected. However, the occasion was brilliant 
and passed ofl with eclat. A procession was formed and 



170 HISTORY OF ST. LOUIS AND MISSOURI. 

platforms and other accompaniments prepared for the occasion 
creditable to a city he had honored by a visit. The public 
were not disappointed in their distinguished visitor. He ad- 
dressed them in that familiar, patriotic language which struck 
the heart and carried conviction with it that he was one of the 
American people who dared to do his duty. He was responded 
to in a suitable manner by a gentleman of taste and eloquence, 
and was escorted with suitable honors to his hotel, while the 
crowd lingered around the edifice to catch a view of the old 
Kentuckian who had either killed Tecumseh or led the lads who 
did it. Thus passed a patriot from the view of Missourians, 
but his example is with us and worthy of record and imitation. 
Colonel Johnson never said he killed Tecumseh. 

Among the most enterprising and industrious of the fur 
traders and explorers of the regions of the Upper Missouri, in 
the most active days of that trade, when it formed the chief 
export of St. Louis and gave vitality to all commercial trans- 
actions, was Major Joshua Pilcher. He had received a liberal 
education, and studied physic for a profession ; but, coming to 
St. Louis at a period of great activity in the fur trade, he was 
easily enticed into it, and became one of the most expert and 
efficient agents in the business and controlled the operations 
of one of the most successful companies that located their 
establishments on the Yellowstone river for near a quarter of 
a century. 

He was a gentleman of the most kind and urbane disposition, 
and in all his traffic with the red men retained their confidence 
and friendship, and retired from their solitudes with their ardent 
wishes for his welfare when his age and strength admonished 
him to seek a more comfortable condition of life. Surrounded 
with all that affluence and kind friends could furnish, he ended 
his active life at the residence of General John Ruland on the 
the 5th of July, 1843, and was followed to his long resting 
place by some of the most devoted friends that it is possible 
for a long, active and virtuous life to throw about an individual. 
His memory will long be cherished by those whom he enriched 
by his industry and aided by his liberality and advice in the 
morning of life, when his example and experience were a rich 
treasure to all. 



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